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COLUMBIAN CONGRESS. 



Hnib.er0attst Jtofesiort oi 3fotiih. 

Adopted 1803. 



We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testaments contain a revelation of the 
character of God, and of the duty, interest and 
final destination of mankind. 

II. 

We believe that there is one God, -whose nature 
is Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one 
Holy Spirit of Grace, -who -will finally restore the 
whole family of mankind to holiness and happi- 
ness. 

III. 

We believe that holiness and true happiness are 
inseparably connected, and that believers ought to 
be careful to maintain order, and practice good 
works, for these things are good and profitable 
unto men. 



THE 



Columbian Congress 




OF THE 



XDtniversalist Cbuccb ^ 

PAPERS AND ADDRESSES AT THE CONGRESS 

HELD AS A SECTION OF THE 

World's Congress auxiliary 

OF THE 

Columbian Exposition 



1893 ^v 






BOSTON AND CHICAGO 
UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE 
1894 



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[THE LIBRARY 

Of CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



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Copyright 

By Universalist Publishing House, 

a. d. 1893. 



PAPERS AND CONTRIBUTORS. 



PAGE. 

i. Universalism a System. i 

Rev. Stephen Crane, D. D., Sycamore, 111. 

2. Punishment Disciplinary. 14 

Rev. Elmer H. Capen, D. D., President Tufts College. 

3. Divine Omnipotence and Free Agency. 26 

Rev. Charles E. Nash.'D. D., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

4. Universal Holiness and Happiness. 51 

Rev. J. Coleman Adams, D. D., Brooklyn. N. Y. 

5. Harmony of the Divine Attributes. 67 

Rev. Edgar Leavitt, Santa Cruz, Cal. 

6. The Intrinsic Worth of Man. 88 

Rev. Everett L. Rexford, D. D., Boston, Mass. 

7. Universalism the Doctrine of the Bible. 100 

Rev. Alonzo A. Miner, D. D., LL. D., Boston Mass. 

8. Intellect, Aspirations and Sentiments of Man. 122 

Rev. J. Smith Dodge, D. D„ Stamford, Conn. 

9. Universalism the Doctrine of Nature. 131 

Rev. Edwin C. Sweetser, D. D., Philadelphia 

10. Universal Restoration in the First Five 

Centuries. 146 

Rev. John W. Hanson, D. D., Chicago, 111. 

11. The Obscuration of Universalism. ( 166 

Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer, D. D., Tufts College, Mass. 

12. The Bible: Inspiration and Revelation. 176 

Rev. George H. Emerson, D. D., Boston, Mass. 

13. Universalist Idea of Salvation. 197 

Rev. Charles H. Eaton, D. D., New York City 



PAPERS AND CONTRIBUTORS. 

14. The Higher Criticism. 211 

Rev. Massena Goodrich, Pawtucket, R. I. 

15. Attitude of the Universalist Church 

towards Science. 224 

Rev. Isaac M. Atyvood, D. D., President of Theological 
School, Canton, N. Y. 

16. Denominational Organization and Polity. 238 

Hon. Hosea W. Parker, Claremont. N. H. 

17. Love, the Basis of Education. 250 

Prof. Nehemiah White, Ph. D., Lombard University, 
Galesburg, 111. 

18. Foreign Missionary Work. 260 

Rev. George L. Perin, D. D., Missionary, Tokio, Japan. 

19. Woman's Centenary Association. 272 

Mrs. Cordelia A. Quinby, President of W. C A. 

20. Woman's State Missionary Organization. 281 

Mrs. M. R. M. Wallace, President Illinois Association. 

21. Young People's Christian Union. 287 

James D. Tillinghast, Tufts College, Mass. 

22. Peace, War and National Honor. 296 

Rev. Henry Blanchard, D. D., Portland, Me. 

23. Crime, Capital Punishment, Intemperance. 308 

Rev. Olympia Brown Willis, Racine, Wis. 

24. Christian Ethics and Business and Political 

Successes. 323 

Rev. A. N. Alcott, Elgin, 111. 

25. Contribution of Universalism to the World's 341 

Faith. 
Rev. James M. Pullman, D. D., Lynn, Mass. 



APPENDIX. 

1. Addresses at the Parliament of Religions, 

2. Committees of the Congress, - - - - 

3. Partial List of Advisory Council, 

4 . Notes on "Universalism in the First Five Centuries." 

5. Ministers at the Congress, - 



INTRODUCTION, 



THE CONGRESSES held in the Memorial Art Institute of 
Chicago, by the World's Congress Auxiliary of the Colum- 
bian Exposition, during the six months of the World's Fair, 
attracted wide attention and are generally regarded as among 
the proudest achievements of the Columbian celebration. 

Never before in the history of the world has there been such 
an extended series of assemblies in the interest of the higher 
things of peace and civilization. The Congress Platform was for 
the time being the Forum of the World. The great subjects that 
engage human attention and by whose discussion from age to 
age civilization is advanced and the world moved onward, had thei e 
consideration and discussion. The program embraced a larger 
variety of topics than was ever before attempted in one general 
convocation. The great interests of Government and Jurispru- 
dence; Commerce and Finance; Science, Literature, Art and 
Music; Education, Politics and the Press; Reform, Political Econ- 
omy, Sociology, Ethics and Religion, with many associated topics, 
had ample discussion in meetings arranged for that purpose. 
Over 200 of these congresses were held, holding more than 1,200 
sessions and addressed by nearly 6,000 speakers. Distinguished 
scholars of Europe, America and the Orient were represented 
either in person or by 'papers prepared especially for the occa- 
sion. It is estimated that 700,000 people attended these meetings 
during the six months, the Auxiliary Congress rivaling in interest 
and success the great Exposition itself. 

Hon. Charles C. Bonney, of Chicago, was the originator of 
the congress idea. Before any of the plans for the Columbian Ex- 
position had taken form, he came to the front with this splendid 
conception, afterwards worked out in the comprehensive spirit 
and wise administration of himself and associates. "The crowning 
glory of the World's Fair of 1893," wrote Mr. Bonney in 1889, 
"should not be the exhibit then to be made of the material tri- 



x INTRODUCTION. 

umphs, industrial achievements and mechanical victories of man, 
however magnificent that display may be. Something higher 
and nobler is demanded by the enlightened and progressive spirit 
of the present age." The World's Congress Auxiliary, with its 
working motto, "Mind, not matter; men, not things, 1 ' was the 
result of that conclusion. The moral and intellectual exhibit thus 
prepared, with its contributions to the welfare of humanity, and its 
revelation of the progressive spirit of our modern life forging its 
way ahead to the intellectual victory of the world, was as remark- 
able in its way as the marvelous artistic and mechanical displays 
so splendidly housed in the palaces of the White City. Grand as 
the Exposition was, and nobly as it redeemed the expectations of 
its projectors and the hopes of the American people, it had a 
worthy competitor in the World's Congress Auxiliary. The Con- 
gress will always be remembered in connection with its great 
associate, the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. 

The Religious Congresses held as a section of the Auxiliary 
in the month of September were perhaps the most notable of the 
Congresses. This is particularly true of the now famous "Parlia- 
ment of Religions," which extended through seventeen days, and 
was undoubtedly the most impressive and unique assembly of the 
Nineteenth Century, if indeed it was ever paralleled in the world's 
history. In this Parliament convened representatives of the great 
historic religions which were old before Christianity was born, and 
whose teachings for twenty-four centuries have been received by 
countless millions of the human race. It was an occasion of su- 
preme interest and certainly marked an epoch in religious history. 
Here men of the Orient and Occident met in friendly conclave to 
discuss the one paramount interest of all ages and climes— Re- 
ligion, "not merely" as Dr. Barrows well said in his introduc- 
tory address, "as Baptists and Buddhists, Catholics and Confucians, 
Parsees and Presbyterians, Methodists and Moslems," but as 
"members of a Parliament of Religions over which flies no sectari- 
an flag, which is to be stampeded by no sectarian war cries, but 
where for the first time in a large council, is lifted up the banner 
of love, friendship and brotherhood." It gave added emphasis to 
the significance of the gathering that this Parliament assembled 
under the auspices of that Christianity which recognizes the Father- 
hood of God and the brotherhood of man, and is thus sufficiently 
inclusive to clasp a world in its wide embrace. 



INTRODUCTION. xi 

In the same weeks with this wonderful gathering were held 
also the series of denominational congresses, in which each church 
or denomination, in its own way, set forth its peculiar principles 
and the distinguishing points in its doctrinal teaching ,and history. 
The papers and addresses contained in this volume were presented 
at the Congress of the Universalist Church, held September 13-15. 
The arrangements were made by a local committee whose names 
are elsewhere printed, appointed by the president of the Auxiliary, 
and with the assistance of an advisory council, whose names are 
are also given in the Appendix. This committee held several 
meetings in the autumn of i892,when the preliminary address was 
issued and the program arranged and published. Alluding to 
the proposed Congress, the address used the following language: 

"It will be a long coveted opportunity to make the world better acquainted 
with the genius of our faith. The best thoughts of our leading thinkers will not 
only be listened to on this great occasion, but will be placed in respectful com- 
parison with those of other leading religious thinkers, and circulated throughout 
the world. Let us, therefore, unitedly and with characteristic thoroughness, set 
forth the honorable history and sublime principles to which our church is conse- 
crated, in order that the reading and thoughtful portion of mankind may no 
longer be excused for ignorance regarding our aims and objects as a Christian 
organization, which stands second to none in the advocacy of moral and social 
reforms, and which is seeking to be a co-worker with all other Christian bodies 
in building the Kingdom of Heaven among men." 

That the opportunity thus indicated was duly improved the 
papers presented in this volume furnish ample evidence. In 
solidity of thought, strength of statement and general literary merit, 
these Congress papers have never been excelled in any Universal- 
ist assembly, while in number they are largely in excess of any 
previous presentation. With three or four exceptions the pro- 
gram was carried out as originally arranged. The sessions of 
the Congress were held in Hall XXXIII of the Art Institute, 
beginning on Tuesday morning, September 12, and closing with 
the exercises of Friday, in the Hall of Washington, set apart as 
"Presentation Day." On that occasion and before a larger 
audience, the presentation of the Universalist Church was made 
by eminent clergymen. Early in the proceedings of the Congress 
in the Hall of Washington, President Bonney and a delegation 
of distinguished visitors of the Parliament, including some of the 
foreign representatives, appeared and were escorted to the plat- 
form. Mr. Bonney presented them to the audience, introducing 
each one. Among the visitors were Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant, 



xii INTRODUCTION. 

of London, and Mr. Theodore F. Seward, of New York, represent- 
ing the Brotherhood of Christian Unity. Mrs. Chant responded to 
a call from the audience, and made a charming address, instinct 
with the spirit of Universalism. Dr. Miner responded from the 
floor to the words of Mr. Bonney in presenting the delegation. It 
was a very pleasant incident of the Congress. 

It is also proper to remark that the proceedings of the Con- 
gress were introduced by an informal conference held on Monday 
afternoon, September 13, in Hall XXXIII, at which the chairman 
of the local committee presided, and brief addresses were made by 
Mr. F. A. Winkelman, president of the Illinois Universalist Con- 
vention, Mrs. M. Louise Thomas, of New York, Rev. Amos Crum, 
D. D., of Iowa, Rev. R. A. White, and several others. Rev. Augusta 
J. Chapin, D. D., offered at this conference a few appropriate words 
of cordial welcome to visitors and friends. On Friday evening a 
reception was also held in the same place, when the visitors of the 
Congress were personally welcomed by a committee of the Chicago 
Universalist churches, and a pleasant social hour enjoyed. 

In arranging the papers of the Congress in book form, it has 
been thought best to follow the logical sequence of the topics as 
far as possible and not the order in which the papers were delivered. 
Thus I-IV, relate to general definitions of Universalism as a 
system of truth; V, VI, deal with the Philosophy of Universalism; 

VII, presents Universalism as the Doctrine of the Scriptures; 

VIII, IX, discuss what may be styled the Universalism of Nature; 
X, XI, present Universalism in its historical aspects; XII-XV, 
exhibit Universalism in its relation to important phases of modern 
religious thought; XVI-XXI, outline the organizations of the 
church, and XXII-XXV, are devoted to discussions of Univer- 
salism in its bearings on modern social problems. The volume will 
thus be recognized as an orderly and somewhat systematic 
presention of the general religious teachings, history and govern- 
ment of the Universalist Church, with a statement of the definite 
purposes, and the hopes and ambitions that animate the denomi- 
nation as an organized body in these closing years of the Nine- 
teenth Century. 

We may add that the editor of the volume has taken the lib- 
erty to include in the Appendix the addresses delivered before the 
Parliament of Religions, by H.N. Higinbotham, president of the 
World's Columbian Exposition, and Rev. Augusta J.Chapin, D.D., 



INTRODUCTION. xiii 

chairman of the General Woman's Committee of the Auxil- 
iary. It is thought that these addresses are apppropriate in the 
volume, although not properly a part of the Universalist Congress, 
inasmuch as Mr. Higinbotham and Miss Chapin are of the Uni- 
versalist household of faith, and their distinguished services in 
the Parliament were an honor to our church. The volume is now- 
offered to the public in the confident belief that it will be warmly 
welcomed by our people and prove useful in promoting a knowl- 
edge of the fundamental principles and beliefs of the Universalist 
Church as represented in the Columbian Congress of 1893. 
Chicago, Nov. 10. 



UNIVERSALIS! CONGRESS. 



I. 
UNIVERSALISM A SYSTEM 

And Not a Single Dogma. 



BY STEPHEN CRANE, D. D. 



EVERY system of theology has one basal idea, one 
central and fundamental principle, that gives, 
unity and consistency to the whole system. Every 
doctrine is based upon and framed into right relations 
with this all controlling principle. 

The basal idea of Universalism is the love of God. 
It postulates an infinite, active benevolence as the 
foundation of all. It puts a boundless love at the heart 
of things, and with this love it makes all things har- 
monize, and in the light of it seeks to interpret all 
things. It conceives of this love, not as a mere senti- 
ment, but as a principle of action. It holds that by it 
God is always moved and absolutely controlled. All 
he does, he is moved to do by this love. Not an act of 



2 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

his springs from any other motive, not an act of his is 
governed by any other principle 

The holiness of God is not denied, but that holiness 
is predicated of love, and not love of holiness. God is 
holy because he is love; he is not love because he is 
holy. A being whose goodness is not infinite and all- 
controlling cannot be absolutely holy. Love is the 
great fountain of holiness and "the stream can never 
rise higher than the fountain." Holiness is begotten of 
love, and the child never does and never can demand 
anything that is not in the heart of the father to grant. 

Postulating love, then, as the source and fountain of 
all, Universalism proceeds to relate the universe there- 
to. It conceives of the physical universe as the ex- 
pression of this love. It is the visible outflow of in- 
finite goodness. Love must act, therefore God loved 
the worlds into being that he might realize his own 
glory in the glory of his worlds. The "vortex rings" 
of matter are but the pulsations of Infinite Love. Suns 
and systems float in the ether of Infinite Goodness. 
They spring from the ocean of love and ride on her 
bosom. Nature is love in external, visible activity. She 
is the World's Fair machinery moved by the heart 
beats of the Eternal. Her forces are but the waves of 
his energy. Her laws are but the ways of his spirit. 
They are ordained and energized that they may be the 
channels of his love. What to us is deformity is only 
"beauty in the making," or spots on our glasses, which 
shut from our vision the high and holy ends that are 
being served. 

Nature has moral significance and exists for moral 
ends, for love can never rest in material grandeur, how- 
ever great, as an end. Love is moral and must have 
moral ends; hence nature is moral, not in the sense that 



UNIVERSALIS^ A SYSTEM. 3 

she distinguishes between right and wrong, but in the 
sense that she exists as the theater for the activity of 
moral beings. 

Hence the moral world, which the little segment we 
see, is in essence the type and in condition the begin- 
nings. God created man in his own image in order to 
satisfy his own love. As a moral principle love can 
love only moral beings. Hence God "loved us into be- 
ing" that he might have children to love. But he 
would have these children return that love, hence he 
made them like himself, capable of loving. But to love, 
children, created beings, must be educated in love. 
Hence the moral world as we see it, a world in which 
the children of God are learning to love Him supremely 
and "our neighbor as ourselves." 

All finite souls are the offspring of the one Infinite 
Soul. God is the Father, all souls are his children. He 
is the Father of "the spirits of all flesh." "In Him we 
all live and move and have our being." These souls or 
spirits with God constitute the inward, spiritual world. 
They form the Father's family — a family of souls not 
of bodies. 

This world is not conditioned in time or space but 
belongs to eternity. All souls, from the fact that they 
are souls and not bodies, belong to the inward, the 
spiritual, the unseen universe. Death has no dominion 
over them. They never die, for "All live unto God." 
Death is of the body not of the spirit. It is outward 
and external and belongs to the world of form not of 
substance, of matter not of mind Hence it is no crisis 
in the life of the spirit. It is no turning point in the 
soul's career. It does not fix its destiny for good or 
ill. In and of itself it has no moral quality, whatever 
may be its moral significance, whatever may be the 



4 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

moral possibilities opened thereby. It is entirely out- 
side of the soul's life. The body dies, not the soul. 
Death is not in the world where the soul lives, there- 
fore it cannot interfere with the soul's activities, stop 
its progress, prevent its reformation, or fix its destiny. 

Excluding death therefore from the world of the 
spirit, all souls are seen to be members of God's spirit- 
ual family and with him to constitute the spiritual 
world. He is the father of all and all are his children. 
Hence all are related, each to all and all to each. By 
virtue of a common parentage, all are members of one 
family and sustain to each other the relation of broth- 
ers. So we have the universal Fatherhood of God and 
the universal brotherhood of man. God is related to 
every soul as a father, every soul is related to God as a 
child, and to every other soul as a brother. 

Upon these relations is based the moral government 
of God All moral responsibility and obligation grow 
out of these relations. From the fact that a soul is a 
child of God, it is morally bound to love and obey 
God. From the fact that it is one of a family of souls, 
it is morally bound to love and do good to every mem- 
ber of this family. And from the fact that God has 
"loved all these souls into being," he has put himself 
under the most solemn obligation to govern them all 
on the principle of paternal love and secure for them 
all the highest possible good. 

Thus does Universalism conceive of the spiritual 
world. Thus does it conceive of the great world of man- 
kind in its own inward constitution and relations 
and in its relation to God and his government. Thus 
conceiving, it proceeds to interpret the facts, unfold 
the laws and affirm the destiny of this world. It recog- 
nizes the fact of sin, not merely of human imperfection, 



UNIVERSALISM A SYSTEM. $ 

but of human transgression and has no occasion to 
minimize that fact; it would realize it in all its sad and 
sorrowful import. Still it does not see that this fact 
impeaches the character of God or renders hopeless 
the destiny of man. 

All moral beings must choose the good for them- 
selves before they can be good. God constantly chooses 
the good, therefore he is always good. A created be- 
ing must constantly choose the good before he can be 
always good. It is conceivable that such a being might 
be so constituted as to choose the good instinctively 
and perpetually, and so never fall into sin, but man was 
not so constituted. Man was created innocent and 
with all the possibilities of a righteous choice, but with 
no instinct compelling that choice. Hence that choice 
must be a matter of education. His will must be ed- 
ucated to choose the right always and everywhere. 
But in obtaining this education he will often choose the 
wrong. So we have what the world presents, the sad 
fact of the world's sin, all resulting from the wrong 
choice of man, from the wrong choosings of mankind. 

This sin, therefore, is no impeachment of the char- 
acter of God. It is directly attributable to the wrong 
choice of man. In being educated into a perpetual 
righteous choice, man often makes an unrighteous one, 
and from these unrighteous choices results all the 
world's sin. If it is desirable, therefore, to have a moral 
world such as human souls create, then it was good in 
God to create such a world notwithstanding it in- 
volved the possibility of sin, and the fact of sin in no 
way impeaches the goodness of God. 

But further, this fact does not render hopeless the 
destiny of man. If man has chosen the wrong, he can 
also choose the right. The capability of a right choice 



6 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

is involved in the fact of a wrong choice. But the 
wrong choice is conceded, man has chosen wrong, 
therefore he can choose the right. But further, man 
has chosen the right sometimes, many times, therefore 
he can be induced to choose the right all the time. 
Still further, some, yea many, it is conceded, will be 
induced to so choose, therefore all can be. Human sin, 
therefore, does not render human destiny hopeless. A 
perfect destiny for man is possible notwithstanding the 
sin of man. The possibility of human perfection is 
grounded in human nature. Because man can choose 
the right, therefore he can be so educated and trained 
as to choose the right always and everywhere. That 
sin can destroy the constitution of the soul, is not to be 
admitted. Such an admission would involve the pos- 
sibility of destroying the soul itself. The annihilation 
of the soul is involved in any doctrine that teaches the 
destruction of any of the constitutional powers of the 
soul. If sin can so paralyze the will as to render a 
righteous choice impossible, then it can destroy the 
soul, and there is nothing more to be said about it. A 
human soul that cannot make a righteous choice ceases 
to be human and becomes a nondescript, something of 
which we have no knowledge and concerning which we 
can have no rational thought. It falls out of the category 
of moral being, ceases to be accountable to moral laws 
and is no longer in the realm of moral consideration. 

No more can sin destroy the relation of the soul to 
God, or of God to the soul. The sinful soul is still a 
child of God, and God is its father. Were this not so, 
did sin destroy this relation, then all moral respon- 
sibility would be gone and the moral government of 
God cease to be. This government rests upon this re~ 
lation. God claims our love and obedience because he 



UNIVERSALISM A SYSTEM. J 

is "our Father" and we are under obligations to love 
and obey him because we are his children. If sin, 
therefore, destroyed this relation, God would have no 
claim upon our obedience and we would be under no 
obligation to obey. These profound spiritual relations 
of God to man and man to God and man to man re- 
main the same notwithstanding human sin. 

Recognizing these great fundamental truths, seeing 
in the nature of man an unlimited possibility of salva- 
tion, and in the nature of God "the promise and po- 
tency" of salvation, Universalism proceeds to unfold 
the process of salvation and to affirm the ultimate suc- 
cess of that process. It sees that all the dealings of 
God with man are ordered to one end, the creating of 
a perpetual righteous choice in every soul, the so edu- 
cating and training of every human will that it shall 
choose the right always and everywhere. 

There is many a suggestion of righteousness in the 
outer world. The house we live in favors holiness. 
The love of the beautiful is akin to the love of good- 
ness. The flower throws its benediction on the side of 
well-doing and the grandeur of ocean and mountain 
scenery tends to create reverence for the moral order 
of the world. The development of the right and wrong 
choice in social conditions powerfully sanctions the 
one and rebukes the other. Righteousness working itself 
out in beneficent social relations, moves men to choose 
righteousness, and wickedness, working itself out in 
social discomfort and wretchedness, warns men against 
choosing unrighteousness. There is "an incipient gos- 
pel in nature," and the spelling book of morals is 
printed in the social conditions which man creates for 
his social environment. 

But the outer world presents a foil for sin. It says: 



o UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

"Thus far and no farther." Great wickedness tends to 
self-destruction. Wicked cities are destroyed, corrupt 
nations perish. Besides, the body checks the wicked- 
ness of the soul. It not only objectifies, and so puts be- 
fore the eyes of all the unholy fires that burn within, 
but it soon refuses to feed those fires. The choice of 
evil passion is soon rebuked by the impossibility of 
gratification. The limitations of the flesh block the 
way of sinful indulgence. Sleep stops many an unholy 
impulse and clears the vision to see the iniquity in 
many an alluring temptation. 

Finally death gives freedom to many a flesh-bound 
soul. What would a man rotten with appetite and pas- 
sion become if he could not die? How pitiable and re- 
volting is the figure of an aged libertine and sensualist! 
Nature opens the grave for these bodies that their 
souls may have the opportunities of another life 
Death gives no moral strength or purity, but it gives 
freedom to moral weakness. It breaks the chain that 
binds the sinful soul to a corrupt body. Like all the 
orderings of God, therefore, death is on the side of the 
righteous and not of the unrighteous choice. 

So all nature, man's whole external environment, 
while not directly teaching morals, is full of moral sug- 
gestions. It is the picture book of ethics, the sign lan- 
guage of righteousness. What it teaches is on the side 
of goodness, the way it would have us go is the way of 
holiness. It is the primer of morals, the primary 
school of the righteous choice, but the high school 
wherein this choice is educated even unto perfection, 
is the world within, is the spiritual universe. 

In the soul itself and in every soul is the school of 
its own moral education and perfection. In here where 
every soul is intimately related to every other and to 



UNIVERSALISM A SYSTEM. g 

God, is wrought out the redemption of that soul in its 
education into the constant and everlasting choice of 
righteousness. Every soul is a child of God and bound 
to him by the closest relations. God is its Father and 
all the laws of its being were ordained of God and are 
energized and enforced by his paternal love. Every 
soul, therefore, is in constant touch with the great Soul 
of the universe God constantly breathes out the force 
that operates all the laws of our being. These laws are 
not automatic, they are operated by the infinite love of 
God. 

Love is the divine principle that seeks the highest 
good of the beings loved. Hence when these laws are 
obeyed, love energizes them for blessing; when they are 
disobeyed love energizes them for punishment. Justice 
is the attitude and action of love toward the sinful, 
mercy the attitude and action of love toward the pen- 
itent. When we sin love comes to us in the form of 
justice and punishes us that we may repent and sin no 
more, and when we repent it comes to us in the form of 
mercy and forgives us our transgression. It never 
" spares the rod and spoils the child," nor turns a deaf ear 
to the cry of mercy. With an eye single to the high- 
est good of his children God, moved by his paternal 
love, rewards and punishes, chastens and forgives just 
as their condition demands. Justice and mercy are 
fruits that ripen on the same tree. There is no conflict 
between them, but always perfect agreement, since they 
are but different expressions of the same great princi- 
ple of love. 

Such is the government of God. It is a paternal 
government resting upon and growing out of the rela- 
tions of God to man and man to God. It is adminis- 
tered by paternal love, and has for its object the secur- 



10 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

ing of a perpetual righteous choice in every soul. It 
is in harmony with the way of God in nature, for it is 
ordained to the same end and governed by the same 
principle. 

But Universalism is not a system of " Naturalism." 
It has room and a place for Christianity. It recognizes 
the work and mission of Christ. It does not, however, 
see in his mission any effort to change the character of 
God or reverse the moral order of the world. Chris- 
tianity is not a reconstruction, but a revelation of what 
is. It shows us the Father; it does not change the 
character of the Father. The divine character today 
is no different from what it was before Christ came. 
The same great love that fills the Father's heart now, 
filled it then. God " out of Christ " is the same as God 
in Christ. Christ did not come to create the love of 
God, but to reveal it. We see in him but a higher 
manifestation of the same spirit that we see in nature, 
in human history and in the human soul The good- 
ness of God as seen in nature becomes his " saving 
grace" as seen in Jesus Christ. God "in Christ" is 
"reconciling the world unto himself." It was not to 
put God into harmony with the world, but the world 
into harmony with God that Christ came. No more 
did Christ come to change the constitution of man or 
the moral government of the world. His regeneration 
is not a reconstruction of human nature. It is not a 
rebirth but a higher birth, "a birth from above." It 
calls into life what is, it does not create something that 
is not. 

Neither does Christianity change the moral govern- 
ment of God. The principles of that government now 
are just what they always have been. Christ does not 
change them, he reveals them. He does not create the 



UNIVERSALISM A SYSTEM. II 

" kingdom of God within;" he unfolds and sets that 
kingdom in order. He raises the primary school of 
righteousness already in the soul into the high school, 
but he does not reverse or change the order. What 
God is doing out of Christ is only done more com- 
pletely and perfectly in Christ. Insomuch, therefore, 
as Christianity is a revelation, it is not in opposition to 
anything that God is or has done or is doing. The 
character and government of God and the nature of 
man are the same in Christ as out of Christ. The love 
of God in Christ is but the larger and richer unfolding 
of the love of God in nature, in providence, and in the 
human soul. 

But insomuch as Christianity is a new spiritual or 
moral force in the world, it is not in opposition to any 
such force already in the world. It does not seek to 
reverse the natural order of things. It is supernatural 
but not "unnatural." It does not oppose nature; it 
adds itself to nature. The only thing it opposes is sin, 
and this because sin is unnatural The sinner is out of 
and not in the natural order, therefore Christianity op- 
poses him and seeks to bring him back into the natural 
order. But with all else it is in harmony. It adds it- 
self to every force of righteousness in the world. There 
is nothing good that Jesus does not fellowship. To 
what God has done in nature, in history, in the human 
soul, and to what of good man has done, he extends 
the most cordial hospitality. Not to turn back the 
stream of human history did Christ come, but to carry 
that stream forward to completion and perfection.' In 
the divine purpose of salvation, Jesus was " slain from 
the foundation of the world " that he might realize that 
purpose in every human soul. 

It will be seen, therefore, that Universalism is a sys- 



12 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

tern; not an isolated doctrine, but a whole body of 
divinity. Its doctrine of destiny is logically related to 
all its other doctrines and is the rational outcome of 
the whole system. Let the system be as it is and no 
other doctrine of destiny is possible. The ultimate 
holiness and happiness of man is the only possible re- 
sult of the postulates involved in the system. 

Its doctrine of destiny is involved in its doctrine of 
deity. Given the one and the other inevitably follows. 
Given a God of infinite love and man, as the offspring 
of that love, must eventually come into a state of per- 
fect love. Love can wait, but love cannot be eternally 
balked of its object. Love can punish, but love cannot 
punish forever without object or end. Love can punish 
for righteousness and until righteousness is secured; 
hence righteousness is the end sought, and must event- 
ually be obtained. So universal salvation results from 
the Universalist doctrine of God. Its doctrine of deity 
necessitates its doctrine of destiny. 

The same is true of its doctrine of. man. Its an- 
thropology no less than its theology necessitates its 
doctrine of destiny. Given a man created in the image 
of God and preserving forever the freedom involved in 
the possession of that image and placed under a gov- 
ernment that rewards the use and punishes the abuse 
of that freedom, and universal salvation is the result. 
Of such a man so placed nothing can be logically 
predicated as an end, save a continuous righteous 
choice. Such a will, so situated, must eventually learn 
to choose righteousness always and everywhere, and so 
come into continuous and unbroken harmony with the 
will of God. Such a man must ultimately " work out 
his own salvation " 

Further, the brotherhood of man demands one final 



UNIVERSALISM A SYSTEM. 1 3 

home for humanity. A brotherhood in origin necessi- 
tates a brotherhood in destiny. If all souls are of 
" one blood," then all souls must come to one goal. 

Still further, the Universalist doctrine of destiny is 
involved in its doctrine of life. Life, all life, is a school 
ordained of God for the education of man into holi- 
ness. Such a school cannot fail of its purpose. A di- 
vinely ordained school must work out its divinely or- 
dained purpose. To predicate failure of such a school 
is to impeach the wisdom or power of the Infinite 
Teacher and Master. 

Finally the Universalist doctrine of Christ necessi- 
tates its doctrine of destiny. Its eschatology is in- 
volved in its Christology. Given Jesus as the sent of 
God and Saviour of the world and the world must be 
saved. If " God was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto himself," then the world must be reconciled. Such 
a Saviour can "see of the travail of his soul and be 
satisfied " only in the salvation of every soul. So " all 
roads lead to Rome." Take any one of these postu- 
lates and the logical result is universal salvation. They 
all lead to the same goal. 

Universalism, therefore, is a system. It is a logical 
structure of related ideas. Its architecture is symmet- 
rical and complete. Its foundation is laid deep in the 
love of God, and its dome pierces the heavens in the 
glory of universal redemption. This love unifies all of 
its parts, and binds them into a harmonious whole. 
God, man and Christ are a trinity of forces working to 
the one goal. Love gives a holy purpose to God, un- 
limited freedom and possibility to man, a divine unity 
to humanity, a boundless purpose and limitless energy 
of salvation to Christ, and so one holy and happy des- 
tiny for mankind. 

Presentation Day, Hall of Waskmgton, Sept. 15. 



II. 

PUNISHMENT DISCIPLINARY : 

The Atonement Reconciliation. Life a School. 



BY PRESIDENT ELMER H. CAPEN, D. D. 



THE idea of punishment as attached to sin is native 
to the human mind. There are no races in which 
the idea is not present. Men commit sin, at least in 
its graver forms, in fear and trembling, and when it is 
committed, they seek escape from the punishment that 
impends. Of course the notion varies with the develop- 
ment of the people; with the habits they have adopted 
and the education they have received. Among the 
Romans, punishment was viewed almost wholly in its 
legal aspects, as the penalty due to violated law. The 
thought of a large part of Christendom on this subject, 
as upon many others, has a Roman root. Augustinian- 
ism, of which Calvinism is but a modification, took its 
shape and color in a civilization in which fighting and 
administration were almost the only functions of 
thoughtful men. Theology could hardly help being 
both bloody and austere under those conditions.' Rome 
was dignified and cruel. She punished her enemies for 



PUNISHMENT DISCIPLINARY. 15 

two reasons, first, to vindicate her honor, and, second- 
ly, to gratify her hatred. Strangely enough the theol- 
ogy of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches has 
exactly copied this thought of a great pagan nation. 
God punishes his erring and sinful children, first, to 
vindicate his offended majesty, and, secondly, to exe- 
cute wrath and vengeance upon them. 

Under such a system all sense of proportion is lost. 
There are no gradations of parts, no adaptations of 
means to ends, no checks and balances and no recog- 
nition of equivalents. Everything is as rigid and in- 
flexible as fate, in that form of stoic philosophy on 
which the Romans sought to base their theory of law. 

From this view of punishment Universalism dis- 
tinctly revolts. It asserts with all the emphasis it can 
command that punishment is neither vindicative nor 
revengeful. It is inflicted on account neither of the 
injured innocence nor the anger of God. It has its 
place in a great plan which contemplates not the de- 
struction but the perfection of humanity. For the in- 
terpretation of punishment the Universalist reverts to 
his primary conception of the moral Universe. Here, 
as fundamental and controlling in all theological con- 
ceptions, are the two facts of the divine Fatherhood of 
God and the divine Sonship of humanity. The moral 
universe is viewed in the form of a spiritual household 
— one family on earth and in heaven. God is the 
father. Man is the child. But one motive is possible 
in this holy relation. That motive is love. The aim 
of punishment is two-fold. It is first corrective, de- 
signed to cause the sinner to halt and turn about in the 
way he is going. It is also stimulative, seeking to 
create a new purpose and lead to repentance, so caus- 
ing the sinner, not only to abandon his sin, but to enter 



l6 UNIVERSALIS!" CONGRESS. 

humbly, cheerfully and affectionately into the service 
of God. 

Under this view we perceive that punishment is 
simply one of those elements of discipline and training 
by which manhood is developed and the soul trans- 
formed into the likeness of God. "Whom the Lord 
, loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom 
he receiveth." 

This truth is so simple that it scarcely needs illus- 
tration. Still it may be profitable to consider on what 
principle punishment is imposed in a well regulated 
Christian household. Why does the mother punish her 
child? Certainly not in hatred or anger. With one 
consent the enlightened people of every Christian na- 
tion will say that the mother who so punishes is not fit 
to be entrusted with the government of children. She 
punishes rather in love for the child's good; to remind 
him that the way of violated law is a hard way, and 
that he cannot find peace and happiness in it; but above 
all to keep his face towards the right until that be- 
comes the one prevailing and dominant object to which 
all his efforts tend. 

The wise parent does not overlook any transgres- 
sion. Particular care is taken that the child shall un- 
derstand that evil cannot be done with impunity under 
any circumstances. In this the best human govern- 
ment is but a pattern of the divine. In the economy of 
God, sin and punishment are inseparable. Punishment 
follows sin as certainly as light follows the rising sun. 
No matter in what secrecy iniquity is committed it will 
declare itself in the stricken conscience and apply the 
corrective smart. No combination of circumstances can 
avert the just penalty of broken law. So long as sin 
continues, punishment will be applied, and there is no 



PUNISHMENT DISCIPLINARY. I J 

escape. " Though hand join in hand the wicked shall 
not be unpunished." They are like the troubled sea 
which perpetually casts up mire and dirt. " There is 
no peace to the wicked, saith my God." This is the doc- 
trine which the Universalist Church has proclaimed 
steadfastly from its very inception. 

In this view of punishment we have the key to the 
Universalist doctrine of the atonement, or rather to its 
interpretation of that form of teaching which the 
Christian Church has called the atonement. The 
founders of the Universalist Church were the pioneers 
in what is now known as the moral view of the atone- 
ment. They began their work by discarding altogether 
the old legal notions of sin and-punishment that had so 
long prevailed. By regarding the natural operations of 
the soul they found a natural place for the mediatorial 
work of Jesus Christ. Hosea Ballou, in his preface to 
"A Treatise on Atonement, " used this significant lan- 
guage: "That sin is infinite, and that it deserves an 
infinite punishment; that the law transgressed is in- 
finite, and inflicts an infinite penalty; and that the great 
Jehovah took on himself a natural body of flesh and 
blood, and actually suffered death on a cross, to satisfy 
his infinite justice, and thereby save his creatures from 
endless misery, are ideas which appear to me to be un- 
founded in the nature of reason and unsupported by 
divine revelation. Such notions have, in my opinion, 
served to darken the human understanding and obscure 
the gospel of eternal life; and have rendered, what I 
esteem as divine revelation, a subject of discredit to 
thousands who would never have condemned the 
scriptures had it not have been for those gross ab- 
surdities." 

The Universalist has simply returned to the position 



1 8 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

of the primitive church. He asks what did the founders 
of our religion understand the atonement to be? Look- 
ing carefully at their language he feels that they were 
persuaded it was setting things right, bringing human- 
ity and God together. In a word atonement and recon- 
ciliation are the same. Sin is alienation from God. 
Joseph Cook puts it, sin is "hating what God loves, 
and loving what God hates." St. Paul says, "the carnal 
mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the 
law of God, neither indeed can be." In other words, 
there is an impassable gulf between righteousness and 
sin. The sinner, therefore, so long as he continues in 
sin, is on the other side of that gulf. The aim of the 
gospel is to take away sin and so remove the alienation. 
The object it proposes is to restore men to their nat- 
ural and normal relations with God, and put them on 
the side of his righteousness. 

This then opens the door to a clear perception of 
the functions of Jesus Christ. 

First of all he appears as the mediator between God 
and men. The human race was astray, lost in the 
mazes of iniquity, and it needed someone to take it by 
the hand and lead it back to home and heaven. God 
likewise, on account of this alienation .of humanity, 
needed an open highway to the heart and life of the 
world, or, if you please, a bridge over the vast gulf that 
yawned between a sinful world and his own holiness. 
Hence the advent of Jesus. How beautiful are the 
many passages of the New Testament which describe 
this phase of his mission. Thou shall call his name 
Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. He 
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he 
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach de- 
liverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight 



PUNISHMENT DISCIPLINARY. 19 

to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to 
preach the acceptable year of the Lord. A bruised 
reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not 
quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. To 
accomplish this beneficent work he comes in the guise 
and nature of our humanity. He is one of us, and as an 
elder brother leads towards the household of God. 
But in like manner he is the representative of his 
Father. He is without sin. He is not only in perfect 
subjection to the law of righteousness, but he unfolds, 
expounds and applies that law. He is all-powerful. 
The elements obey his command. With a word he bids 
disease and pain be gone. He calls the dead from their 
graves. He even brings the angels of God to his side. 
All power in heaven and on earth was given to him. 
Well might it be said that he was the brightness of the 
Father's glory and the express image of his person. In 
him, therefore, the gulf vanished. He was the open 
highway over which God could come to humanity and 
make his abode with them. He was the tender and rec- 
onciling friend, taking men by the hand and leading 
them into the presence of a just and merciful Father 

But it may be asked, is there no place for the sac- 
rificial element of which the scriptures make much? 
Certainly. But the sacrifice is natural and not artifical. 
No proper interpretation of the scriptures gives war- 
rant to the idea that God demands a victim, as the poor 
benighted African mother thinks, who casts her babe 
to the crocodiles. Neither does infinite justice demand 
a certain quantity of penalty, no matter by whom suf- 
fered. How then did Jesus bear our sins? How did 
he suffer, as the scriptures say, "the just for the un- 
just?" The principle of sacrifice is ingrained in the hu- 
man soul. Men feel called upon in their better moods 

3 



20 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

to make sacrifices for the sake of others. We are so 
made that we applaud the spirit of sacrifice wherever 
we see it manifested. But the whole merit of it lies in 
its voluntariness. If service is grudgingly rendered, 
more than half its charm is gone. A child cries aloud 
in the night. The servant, in whose care it is left, 
drags herself reluctantly and wearily to answer the 
call. But the mother springs to her feet and is at the 
bedside of the child before her eyes are open. 

The scriptures represent Jesus as taking on, of his 
own choice, our nature; as coming to us eagerly out of 
his great love and tender compassion that he might lift 
up and save. The ethical element is the dominant one, 
and it is this that gives to it its highest merit. The sub- 
stitutionary notion of punishment, as commonly con- 
ceived, has no place in the gospel scheme. Neither 
has the doctrine of the transfer of merit from Jesus to 
humanity. There is, to be sure, the carrying of burdens 
for others, the suffering for the sake of, and sometimes, 
perhaps, in a sense, instead of others. But this is accord- 
ing to analogies that are common. How often do we 
see the father taking up burdens for the son, not merely 
that he may relieve the back of the son from bearing 
them and make»the way of life smoother and easier, but 
that he may give encouragement to him and rouse and 
strengthen his filial affection. How often, too, if the 
son is wayward and perverse, is the father compelled 
in seeking his recovery, to experience the shame, the 
humiliation, the degradation and heart-ache which the 
son's iniquity carries with it, and to which, perhaps, 
his own callous heart is a stranger. But the father's 
work is voluntary He is impelled to it by a love that 
will not let him rest, however weary. So it is in the 
gospel teaching of the sacrifice by which the world is 



PUNISHMENT DISCIPLINARY. 21 

saved. God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son to the end that all who believe in him 
might not perish but have everlasting life. God com- 
mendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet 
sinners Christ died for us. Christ was so filled with af- 
fection for mankind that he could not abide in his 
Father's house, but became obedient unto death for 
our sake. Greater love hath no man than this, that a 
man lay down his life for his friends. In this way God 
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. 

Nor should it be forgotten that the Universalis!, in 
his interpretation of the gospel doctrine of the atone- 
ment, makes much of the exemplary features of Christ's 
work. In nothing, perhaps, are we more influenced than 
by example. The son does what he sees his father do, 
the daughter repeats what she observes in her mother's 
conduct. The habit follows us from childhood to the 
laying down altogether of the burdens of life. What 
spell so potent, even in old age, as the remembrance of 
father and mother. In the broader fields of the world's 
work, all hearts are quickened by recalling what has 
been done by the heroes and servants of mankind. The 
poor soldier who, on the field of Gettysburg, crawled 
behind a fence to die, was undoubtedly comforted in 
his last moments by the recollection of the heroic 
sacrifices made for his sake at Lexington and Bunker 
Hill. The man who champions the cause of truth and 
righteousness, defying the opposition and obloquy of 
the world, is made invincible when he thinks of the 
martyrs of truth and righteousness in every age. 

It is not too much to affirm that Christianity is, in 
this respect, unique. It does not rely wholly upon 
dogma. Philosophy contents itself with proclaiming 
the truth. It is left entirely to men's choice whether 



22 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS, 

they will accept it or not. Often times, too, when the 
intellect is convinced the will is unmoved. Hence 
many of the great teachers of antiquity, men who 
devised great systems that still have a place in our 
schools, lived in open disregard of the doctrines which 
they conceived to be essential to the best life of the 
world. 

It was not so with Jesus. He said: "By their fruits 
ye shall know them." He recognized the great principle 
of the true life when he declared, "the Son can do noth- 
ing of himself but what he seeth the Father do." In 
like manner, men were to be guided by the example of 
the Son. He first of all brought his own life into sub- 
jection to the law he prescribed for others. He practiced 
what he taught. "Ye are my friends if ye do whatso- 
ever I have commanded you." But that there might be 
no mistake as to the nature and import of the command- 
ment he gave a living illustration of it, so that men in 
every time of doubt and uncertainly can test the quality 
of their own performances by applying to them the 
standards which his conduct has established. This is 
the great appeal. In seeking the reconciliation of the 
world to God reference is constantly made to the 
unblemished example, the spotless perfection of Jesus 
Christ. 

These views of the nature and object of punishment, 
and of the function of Jesus as the healer and reconciler 
of humanity, lead the Universalist to take a somewhat 
different view of life from that long held in the Chris- 
tian Church. The old belief was that the supreme busi- 
ness of man in this world is to escape the pangs of 
hell, and secure the bliss of heaven. This was thought 
to be salvation according to the gospel scheme. But 
with the broader conception of the nature of sin and its 



PUNISHMENT DISCIPLINARY. 23 

place in the economy of the spiritual universe, and with 
the profounder knowledge of the constitution of man 
and the rank he holds in the affection of God, the 
chief functions of humanity have assumed a nobler and 
more dignified character. It is now seen that the thing 
which should command the most serious and diligent 
efforts of the human soul is its own development and 
growth along the line of the possibilities that God has 
given to it. The varied experiences of life, therefore, 
are not only disciplinary but educational. The facul- 
ties of mind, heart and spirit are for enlightenment, and 
the world is full of light. Everything we see, every- 
thing we feel or do, if regarded in the right spirit, will 
help to illumine the soul and strengthen it, thus ena- 
bling it to walk surely and uprightly. In other words, 
the Universalist rejects the notion of probation as that 
term is commonly understood, either first or second- 
He does not believe that man is on trial here for his 
life in another world. He does not find this notion 
supported either by the holy scriptures or the constitu- 
tion of the human soul. 

The Universalist doctrine on this subject is estab- 
lished mainly by two important facts. First — The one 
.chief object of life is the attainment of character. 
There is no real salvation apart from that. The Uni- 
versalist does not dispute the new birth. He believes 
in it most heartily. A man may in a moment, in the 
twinkling of an eye, turn about in the course he is pur- 
suing and set his face toward righteousness and heaven. 
He may be swept by some great wave of passion, he 
may be smitten by the power of a great appeal, but not- 
withstanding that, before he can be regarded as safe in 
the choice he has made, he must make demonstration 
of his ability to "continue in the grace of God. b " 



24 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

Secondly — The Universalist believes in the continuity 
of life. Immortality is now as well as hereafter. Even 
the resurrection according to gospel teaching does not 
depend upon the article of death. "I am the resurrec- 
tion and the life," said Jesus. "He that believeth in me 
though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die." The great 
anastasis of the soul may come now as well as here- 
after. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those 
things which are above." Keeping these facts in mind 
it is not difficult to see, indeed, the conclusion is inevi- 
table, that life is a school and not a probation. We are 
here for instruction, for discipline and for development. 
Life is continuous. Death finds the soul to be just what 
life has made it. We enter upon the life that lies be- 
yond the grave, in the nature of things it cannot be 
otherwise, with the character we have made for our- 
selves here. 

Of course there are tests. Men are put to the proof 
again and again all the way along life's journey. Their 
fitness for many exigencies is determined by the trials 
to which they are subjected. But no trial is final. If 
the soul will, it may repeat its efforts over and over 
until at length it attains. Indeed, this is the hope that 
is held out to it, that after devious flights and repeated 
efforts it "shall arrive" at last at the goal of the Father's 
love. Neither is there denial to be made of the force 
of circumstances upon the shape and color which the 
soul takes on. The life of the pagan savage cannot 
yield the fruit of the life of the civilized Christian. 
The life of a child, born in the slums, compelled to 
breathe from its birth the poisonous atmosphere of ini- 
quity, though it may resist temptation and even acquire 
a heavenly beauty, cannot be what it would have been 



PUNISHMENT DISCIPLINARY. 2$ 

under more favorable surroundings. Hence it is not 
wise to lay too much stress on the present attainment. 
We cannot tell what effects will be wrought in the 
transformation of the soul by its transference from 
earthly conditions, with their temptations, hindrances, 
limitations and obscurities, to conditions which we are 
wont to call heavenly, with all the light and glory by 
which, in our own optimistic moods, we believe them 
to be attended. We turn with confidence and comfort 
to the almost unmistakable intimations of the Christian 
Scriptures that the new life of the soul in the new 
realm that lies beyond the grave, will be attended by a 
great gain in all the higher qualities of spiritual power 
for which we never cease to long with a great longing. 
We rise out of every deep of humiliation and despon- 
dency, by recalling, that here we see through a glass 
darkly, but there we shall see face to face; that now we 
know in part, but then we shall know even as we are 
known; that now we are the sons of God, and it doth 
not yet appear what we shall be, but when he shall 
appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he 
is. This is the Universalist's great hope, his profound 
and indubitable conviction, that every experience of 
human life, whether in time or eternity, will be some- 
how inwrought into the mysterious fabric of the soul's 
achievement until its perfection shall be secured. He 
unfalteringly expects, through chastening, suffering, 
sacrifice, illustrative example, and holy teachings, for 
himself and all mankind, the attainment of the perfected 
and ideal manhood, and he awaits, with serene and 
lofty courage, the 

"One far-off divine event, 
To which the whole creation moves." 

Read in Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 12. 



III. 

DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE AND HUMAN 

FREE AGENCY 

In the Problem of Salvation. 



BY CHARLES ELLWOOD NASH, D. D. 



IT is a singular phase of the mutations of theology 
that the defense of the divine attributes against the 
prepossessions and compromises of Orthodox theory 
should fall to those who have been persistently stig- 
matized as heretics and infidels. Universalism asks no 
more for the foundations of its argument than the com- 
mon Christian creed affirms. It holds to the logic of 
the premises which is evaded in the popular conclu- 
sions. How this is may be seen in the examination 
which follows of the relation of the divine omnipotence 
to human freedom in the problem of salvation. 

Omnipotence is a term of infinity, denoting the 
maximum of possible power concentrated in a single 
seat of control. It admits of limitation only by the 
nature of the subject which wields it, and by the nature 
of things, in so far as the nature of things is immutable. 
It does not in itself imply monopoly of force, but 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. ^ 

rather the contrary, since absolute dominance cannot 
be predicated where there is no resistance. Much less 
is it to be taken as equivalent to the sum of all exist- 
ing forces, for, first, these are not infinite (except upon 
the assumption that they include an infinite member), 
and, secondly, the philosophic concept does not in- 
volve the reality of what it posits as an hypothesis. 
In a word, we have here a working symbol employed 
in metaphysical reasoning to mark the ne plus ultra, not 
of cone eiv ability, which is finite as the conceiving mind 
is finite, nor of reality, which may be finite, but of possi- 
bility, which is infinite. 

Whether actual omnipotence, thus defined, exists in 
the universe can be known, it would seem, only by 
Revelation. Natural Theology, following in the track 
and building upon the results of Natural Science, can- 
not attain to it, for the cosmos whence it draws its ma- 
terials appears, in so far, at least, as it can be inductive- 
ly explored, a limited and dependent thing, for whose 
creation or direction something less than true omnipo- 
tence would be adequate. Nor can Philosophy certify 
it, except as a necessary attribute of the Perfect or the 
Absolute, whose existence itself needs verification. 
Christian opinion, however, is unanimous in affirming 
the fact as unmistakably given in the Scriptures, the 
"final rule of faith," so that the doctrine of the veritable 
omnipotence of God is held in common by all the sects 
as a primary postulate of Christian theism. That the 
plenary significance of this doctrine is nevertheless but 
scantily appreciated in the popular type of thinking 
will, perhaps, become patent in the progress of this 
paper. 

The Universalist conception of the divine omnipo- 
tence is peculiar only in its radical and realistic fulness. 



28 UNIVERSAL1ST CONGRESS. 

Its interpretation of the attribute is no more capacious 
than is involved in the conventional statements of Or- 
thodoxy; but it does not afterwards shrink from the 
logic of the interpretation, nor find it necessary to com- 
promise the attribute in a mistaken effort to harmonize 
it with other functions of the divine being. Admit- 
ting the so-called "limitation" of its exercise by the 
constitution of the divine nature, and of the nature of 
things, it refuses to regard this as limitation in any 
proper sense, since it is rather the condition of its 
activity, the medium through which or the material 
upon which it operates. It even sees in the alleged re- 
straint new justification of its own large hopes for man. 

Consider these limitations, what they are. 

/. Of the Nature of Things. Much that must be said 
in a full discussion of the relation of omnipotence to 
the nature of things would be irrelevant to the purpose 
of this paper. Let it be only remarked, then, in pass- 
ing, that even infinite power must, apparently, conform 
to the primal categories, especially of time and space. 
Time, which is succession, and space, which is exten- 
sion, seem as old and as inevitable as eternity itself. 
Thus, to allude to certain smart conundrums, God could 
not assuredly make "a year-old shoat in a minute," nor 
"two hills without a vale between." Such problems 
annihilate themselves by self-contradiction. 

On the other hand, those who argue for the eternity 
of matter, coeval with God, on the ground that, since 
ex nihilo nihil fit, substance cannot be created, will not 
feel this duality of existence to be any real restriction 
upon omnipotence, which is allowed, as the active factor, 
to have entire control of the passive material of creation 
in its motions, localities, and combinations: especially 
since the now known sixty-four chemical simples 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 29 

(not to suggest the possibility of many more unknown) 
with their different affinities, atomic weights, and 
properties, afford practically unlimited opportunity for 
variety in creation through their possible combinations, 
distributions, orbits, and velocities. But this eternal 
dualty the theist does not yet feel obliged to concede. 

It is more to our purpose to observe that omnipo- 
tence cannot contravene the essential data of reason- 
ing, for example the mathematical axioms. Omnipo- 
tence is as helpless as its weakest creature before the 
necessary truth that "a straight line is the shortest dis- 
tance between two points," or, that "the whole is 
greater than a part." John Stuart Mill has, indeed, lent 
the weight of a reputation for courageous acuteness to 
the logical heresy that "there may be a world in which 
two and two make five." But this can only be true 
where a part is equal to the whole, or where the sum of 
the angles of a triangle is not equal to two right-angles. 
The statement is simply self-nugatory and impossible. 

To the same effect is the observation that omnipo- 
tence cannot cause a thing both to be and not be at the 
same time; in other words, cannot make contradictions 
identical. For instance, it cannot itself be omnipotent 
and yet in any sense subordinate, cannot be primary 
and at the same time really secondary — that is, it can- 
not surrender its own sovereignty, it cannot commit sui- 
cide. Nor can it make that not to have been which has 
been. If, as a distinguished recent authority affirms, 
" deliverance from the guilt of sin is necessary to the 
soul's peace with God," no sinner can ever be saved. 
Annihilation of the transgressor would be the only 
possible cancellation of guilt, and even that could not 
affect the fact as a part of history. It will always be 
true that he who has sinned was a sinner. Similarly, 



30 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

it has no power to render omniscience ignorant, nor to 
localize omnipresence. Under the same principle, again, 
it cannot make right wrong, nor truth false, nor benevo- 
lence vindictive, nor justice unfair — that is, it cannot 
construct an arbitrary moral code, and by mere fiat give 
it validity. It is not denied that in the absence of re- 
straint from within an Almighty person could play fast 
and loose with righteousness, could act the role of a 
Jove, a Satan, or a God, could even enforce a nomencla- 
ture which should call caprice constancy and cruelty 
compassion; nay, could dupe its creatures into imagin- 
ing iniquity to be virtue and loathsomeness to be love- 
ly, so constituting them, in fact, that that illusion would 
seem the most real of realities, and become innate and 
permanent. It is not difficult to conceive the universe 
turned topsy-turvy by the cavortings of wanton or ma- 
licious absolute power; but the head of the table would 
still be where MacGregor sits. Right would be right and 
not wrong, light would be light and not darkness, love 
would be love and not hate, however belied and humil- 
iated, and omnipotence itself, daring to challenge the 
tides of eternal truth with an impotent, " Thus far and 
no further," would become a thing ridiculous and con- 
temptible. 

IL The Limitations of Divine Omnipotence in the 
Divine Nature Itself. If it should be argued, as it has been 
argued, in exception to the claim just urged, that om- 
nipotence could not make malevolence benevolent, and 
so forth, that the sole source and test of righteousness 
is the divine will, which, therefore, if directed by op- 
posite inclinations to opposite ends, would make what 
now seems to be wrong not only seem to be, but ac- 
tually to be right, we may escape from the dreary and 
profitless speculation thus provoked, by simply remind- 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 3 1 

ing ourselves that according to the consent of Chris- 
tian theology in all sects, the real God, now regnant in 
the universe, is a Being invested with certain essential 
and moral attributes. Among these are, on one hand, 
omniscience and omnipresence; on the other, perfect 
holiness and perfect benevolence, terms inclusive of the 
more frequent ascriptions of justice, righteousness, 
love and mercy. With these qualities omnipotence is 
associated in equal and inalienable authority. Its 
power, therefore, comes 'to an end whenever its exer- 
cise would impinge upon their integrity. That is to 
say, God cannot act out of harmony with his own na- 
ture, cannot stultify himself, cannot be other than all- 
knowing, everywhere present, holy and kind, in action 
and in quiescence, in will and in way, throughout every 
part of his domain, from eternity to eternity. 

To teach, however, that God is confined to the 
thoughts, purposes, desires which flow from a nature 
such as his, is to affirm a speculative, not a real, limita- 
tion of his power. For what actual thing is it which 
such attributes cannot compass, save only self-betrayal 
and the undoing of the creation, which would argue 
feebleness, not force? Power is manifested in the birth 
and sustentation of a cosmos, which, in its absence, im- 
potence might suffice to tear down. 

An assemblage of attributes such as these results, 
first, in its own immutability. God cannot change 
either his disposition or his ultimate designs. He can- 
not change his tastes, his desires. He cannot be other 
than steadfast, unflinching, unwavering. He cannot 
love what he has hated, nor hate what he has loved. 
He cannot repent, he cannot modify his plans, he can- 
not compromise, he cannot be false to his threat or his 
promise. To him alone in the universe is denied what 



32 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

to us appears the supreme privilege of growth. How 
he escapes monotony must forever remain a mystery to 
finite understandings. 

Again, the universality of these attributes logically 
necessitates a uniform principle, but not method, of 
government. God cannot exercise a fragmentary or 
spasmodic dominion, cannot detach himself from any 
region or abrogate his control over it, cannot be partial, 
cannot divide his throne with friend or foe. No matter 
who appears to rule, the Omniscient, the Omnipresent, 
the Omnipotent is inevitably the power behind and be- 
neath the throne. 

Nor, once more, can the Being who foresees all, 
who designs all, who fashions and frames at his will, 
who takes the awful initiative in the unshared act of 
creation, whose authority never remits, in whose pres- 
ence every incident occurs and every affair is transacted 
under the unbearable white light of an absolute knowl- 
edge, at whose thought atoms dance and constellations 
unroll, who speaks and it is done, who commands and 
it stands fast, by any dictum or decree, by any convul- 
sion of miracle or process of evolution, by any artifice, 
or contrivance, or " system," dissolve the bonds of re- 
sponsibility which he freely assumes in becoming a 
voluntary author and Father. Here, also, omnipotence 
is brought to check by the immutable environment 
of the divine nature in consort with the nature of 
things. 

It is held by some to be a debatable question, 
whether a being of these perfections can truly appre- 
ciate and sympathize with human needs, and especially 
human sorrows. For my part, I assume that the divine 
love is a reality, and I hold that no absolutism or om- 
nipotence can render a being who loves, and who uses 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 33 

secondary causes to promote desired ends, self-suffi- 
cient, that is, independent of the answer which the be- 
loved object makes to his love, or impassive to the be- 
trayal of the agents on whom his enterprises depend. 
Omnipotence cannot yield immunity from the chagrin 
of defeat, or disarm the sting of an unrequitted love. 
I will even go so far as to say that in calling the un- 
born into life and investing his affections in man, the 
Father has staked his own eternal peace upon the des- 
tiny of his offspring. 

Such, then, are some of the "limitations" under 
which divine almightiness operates; and it must be 
evident that with respect to the redemption of man 
they are each and all restrictions, not upon its power 
to save, but upon its neglect of any possible means 
which promises to save, restrictions upon its desertion 
of man in any extremity, much more upon its becom- 
ing his enemy, his Torquemada or his Devil. They 
simply emphasize the assurance that all that is possible 
at all is possible with God; that everything is possible 
which infinite holiness and love can desire, infinite wis- 
dom devise, and infinite resources provide material for; 
while nothing that is thus possible will be left undone 
to recover the lost sheep and bring the last vagrant 
and prodigal home to his Father's house. 

But even these bold averments, broad as they are — 
nay, because they are so broad without being particular 
and specific — fail to impress the mind with anything 
like an adequate apprehension of the manifoldness, the 
indomitableness, the completeness of the divine power. 
Let us attempt a nearer and more detailed view of its 
significance. 

What we then see is power in its plentitude and per- 
fection; power beyond any ideal or conception; power 



34 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

original, inexhaustable, indefatigable; power complete 
and measureless in its scope, in its variety, in its ver- 
satility; power equipped with all means, enforced by 
all helps, masterof all methods, capable of instantaneous 
application anywhere, in any degree, in any manner, to 
the greatest advantage; freely moving in all directions, 
either simultaneously or successively, or in alternation; 
power swift or slow, ponderous or delicate, momentary 
or permanent; power practiced, sagacious, confident, 
patient; power to which all other power pays tribute, 
the tribute of child to parent and of subject to sovereign; 
power of all sorts, or under all forms, mechanical, 
chemical, vital, spiritual; power that 

"Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
Glows in the stars, or blossoms on the trees, 
Lives through all life, extends through all extent 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent." 

Words fail even to outline it. Is it then to be soberly 
argued that human will can baffle that before which 
human thought is helpless and human speech is dumb? 

Omnipotence, let it be carefully considered, is not 
mere store of energy, mere quantity or quality of force. 
It is itself rather a product of the harmonies of the 
divine nature, from whose every attribute and function 
it collects its generous toll. 

It arises, first, from the absolute fullness and pre- 
cision of the divine information concerning the universe 
He governs. For Him there is no need of reporters, no 
dependence upon uncertain wires or operators, no wait- 
ing for dilatory and careless messengers, no ransacking 
of blurred and mutilated records, no juggling with wit- 
nesses, no mixing of accounts, no error of memory, no 
blunder of calculation, no hesitation, no inaccuracy of 
vision, or dullness of hearing, no possible slip or miss 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 35 

of any sort whatsoever. Every secret of the enemy is 
published in the divine council-chamber (so to speak) 
more rapidly than it becomes intelligible to the slow 
mental machine of the creature — all his dreams, his 
plans of campaign, his musterings and his manoeuvres. 
But on the divine side what skill, what numbers, what 
infallible judgment in choice of means and methods 
of attack! The Lord is a man of war! Who can with- 
stand him? 

Again, the divine power flows also from the perfect 
consonance of the divine will with the constitution and 
operations of nature. Say, if you will, (though I do 
not admit it), that man, and certain angels, perhaps, are 
exceptions to that harmony, it remains true that not 
only the stars which fought against Sisera, fight for 
God, but the whole drift and pressure of the creation, 
its material processes, its moral and social, its intellect- 
ual and spiritual, its industrial and political laws and 
forces, are brought to bear on God's side to invite, to 
persuade, to chastise, to frighten, to inspire, to coerce 
the rebellious into obedience, for the sake of the Uni- 
verse. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
in pain" to deliver man into life and liberty. Does this 
avail nothing? Shall it again be true, on the most ap- 
palling scale, that "ntons laborat y parturit ridicidus musV 

Once more, God's omnipotence is the omnipotence 
of an infi?iite love for men. Is it "love that makes the 
world go round?" Far more is it true that love sub- 
dues the heavens to its sentiment. What a brother's 
love would do, what a mother's love would do, what a 
lover's love would do for its object, that and infinitely 
more, must omnipotent love do, finding its omnipotence 
multiplied (permit the paradox) by its love. 

Still again, consider the omnipotence of an infinite 
4 



36 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

passion for righteousness', a yearning, crying, consuming 
hunger and thirst for righteousness. This is what the 
holiness of God must mean, so long as sin anywhere 
exists. 

Or, consider the omnipotence of an absolute, uncon- 
querable will-power, an all engrossing, immitigable pur- 
pose! Think what the pale shadow of this in men has 
done, and estimate what it must effect in the Eternal. 

Add to these the reflection that God's cause is in- 
herently right and thus inherently mighty. He holds 
unmistakably every position of advantage in his con- 
troversy with the sinner. Against man's stupid obdu- 
racy his own reason is pleading, his own interests are 
making outcry, yes, and his own heart-famine is bleed- 
ingly protesting. Man's nature is in revolt against 
man's sin. And the gospel addresses it with a message 
all love, all light, all health — although, alas, the imperfect 
media of our bungling ministries, obscure and even 
malign that message, hurtling it forth at times like a 
missile that wounds and repels what it was meant to 
succor and reclaim. Man never declines a divine 
overture when he recognizes the hand held out to him 
as divine; but he often repudiates the human mediator, 
whose meaning he misconstrues or whose motive he re- 
sents. Meanwhile God is patient, waiting for his am- 
bassadors to master their office. 

In this skeleton analysis it must be clear that the 
divine will is potent with mind, hot less than with mat- 
ter. Over matter its regency is, indeed, immediate and 
mandatory; over mind, (that is, over the free choice of 
the human mind), it is only educative and persuasive; 
but there too it is inevitable that the Creator should be 
supreme over the creature. 

Finally, all modes of power God must be able to 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 37 

employ with consummate facility. The genius of im- 
parting truth, the knack of teaching, which, whether it 
consists in ingenuity of method and mastery of mate- 
rials, or in a personal transfusion of enthusiasm, kindles 
and transfigures the pupil's mind to supernormal acute- 
ness; the fascination of address, whose spell is hypnotic; 
the charm of elegant deportment, which seems to set 
its possessor apart as a being of selecter realms; the 
aspect of authority, the tone of command, whose con- 
trol is direct and godlike; the burning eloquence of art, 
the witchery and dominance of the orator, the quiet dic- 
tatorship of the sage, the sovereignty that flashes from 
the sceptre of science, the mystery and magic of music, 
the thrill of the poet, the sway of the actor, the glam- 
our of the hero, the finesse of the diplomat! All, all 
forms and varieties of influence, not in the common de- 
grees in which they constitute the few leaders of the 
many the world over, not even in the extraordinary 
degrees where they empower here and there a man to 
be the moulder of nations or of centuries, but in infinite 
measure must belong to God. And such is the combin- 
ation of persuasion and command which he can bring 
to bear at pleasure upon foolish and easily flattered or 
terrified humanity, just to induce men to accept riches 
for poverty, health for sickness, friends for foes, bound- 
less happiness for bottomless misery! 

It is not necessary that the Deity should incarnate 
himself in flesh in order to become the exponent of 
methods of persuasion like these. It will be sufficient 
if he clothes with adequate power some chosen represent- 
ative. This at least he can do; and the effect of its 
doing cannot be doubtful. 

Will it be said that this involves a piecing out with 
miracles of the insufficiency of natural processes? It 



38 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

could hardly be called a miracle if it were the divine 
method. And no process could be more "natural" than 
one which grew out of the necessities of the divine 
nature. Even so, is it not better that Heaven should 
work a miracle than that men should be hopelessly 
damned? The Universalist theory does not anticipate 
the salvation of men by any agency so extraordinary as 
the suggestions just offered might describe; but it is 
not because it could have any diffidence as to the 
ability of the Almighty to employ such means if he 
chose, nor as to his willingness and readiness to employ 
them if the exigency required it. It is only because it 
trusts to the gradual and, to our impatience, the tedious, 
but nevertheless the inexorable, the invincible evolu- 
tions of the future; because it believes the whole effec- 
tive value of such a fleshly incorporation to be already 
incarnated in the Nature of Things, in the very sub- 
stance and framework of the creation, where it will in 
due time vindicate itself and its author. 

The Universalist thought of the divine puissance is 
thus crudely sketched, and thereby the principal task 
of this paper is performed. For upon the definition 
and conception of omnipotence depends the inevitable 
sequel. Those who go with us thus far, must, we think, 
go with us the rest of the way. It remains then to in- 
quire what sort and degree of control such power can 
wield over free volition. 

Before coming to close quarters with that problem 
two or three general reflections may pave the way to 
an intelligent verdict. 

I. God must at this present moment either be hav- 
ing or not having his own way. If he is now not hav- 
ing his own way it is certain, from the admitted prem- 
ises of Christian theology, that he never had it. For 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 39 

absolute, universal supremacy, especially when but- 
tressed on either hand by omnipresence and omni- 
science, is in the nature of the case, self-perpetuating. It 
could neither be lost through inadvertence or conquest, 
nor voluntarily surrendered. Its absence now, there- 
fore, would prove that it was never present. It would 
prove, also, that it can never be present, for omnipotence 
is, as said at the outset, a term of infinity, and that 
must be a birthright, it cannot be acquired. Domi- 
nance, indeed, over the finite powers of creation might 
be possible by gradually extending the area of victory, 
but even that could have no secure guaranty. Now 
this is the same as saying there is no God. 

If, on the other hand, God is now having his owu 
way, or, if at the beginning he had his own way, he 
must have it absolutely forever. For real omnipotence 
is indefeasible. Now, to have his own way means, in the 
ease of man, not the subversion of human freedom, but 
(in some mode whose compatibility with human freedom 
presents precisely the same mystery or seeming para- 
dox as the admitted co-existence of Divine Sovereignty 
and human free agency) the getting or persuading man 
to do what God wants him to do. Temporarily this 
embarrasses our theodicies with the fact of sin, for 
whose presence in creation the omnipotent Creator 
can by no means escape responsibility, but whose in- 
iquity attaches to man, not to God. Ultimately this 
must mean the riddance of sin, which may be tolerated 
in passing, but cannot possibly appear in the finished 
work of a perfectly holy Being with power to execute 
his desires. 

A divided destiny for men can only signify either 
that God does not have his own way, and is thus not 
omnipotent, or that it is not his way to abolish sin, and 
thus that he is not holy. 



40 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

2. Again. If any soul is finally given over to sin 
and woe, in must be because God is either unwilling or 
unable to save it. 

By salvation we mean the health, wholeness, holi- 
ness, the normal state of a soul stamped with the 
divine image. 

If God is unwilling, if he be not eagerly desirous to 
save to the uttermost, he is not benevolent. 

For the salvation of a soul is an unspeakable boon, 
not only to that soul but to the whole creation, and it 
is inconceivable that any interest can be damaged or 
hazarded by the conversion of disease to health, of 
disorder to sanity, by the presence of one more God- 
filled nature taking the place of a God-emptied one. 

If God is unable to save, though eager to do so, the 
obstacle that prevents him is superior to him, he is not 
master of the situation. It may be said that the loss 
or abandonment of some souls is the alternative of in- 
terfering with a "system," or with human freedom. 
None the less, whatever the explanation, God has to 
compromise with his desires, has to be content with a 
part of the whole he craves, has to become — He, the 
great philanthropist — the perpetuator of misery; He, 
the Holy One, the Foundation of Death and Sin! 

3. Once more. If it be now impossible to save all 
souls, it must always have been impossible. For, no 
new elements have entered into the problem which 
were not potential, and to divine thought actual, from 
eternity. And it is inconceivable that infinite Benevo- 
lence should, at any past time or stage, have let slip an 
opportunity then possessed for achieving what is now 
confessedly desirable. That is, some souls have been 
born which never had a chance for salvation, whose 
doom was always inevitable. The utter inadmissibility 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 4* 

of that remorseless conclusion forces us to reach back 
and recast the premise, and to say it is now possible to 
save all souls. For in damning souls with such logic 
we consign their author to far worse condemnation! 
It follows, of course, that God can save all souls — which 
is what we are concerned in this paper to prove. 

It has not been my object in these general reflections, 
to found an argument for the Universalist faith upon the 
moral perfections of the Deity. But only negatively to 
show that his other attributes, so far from interposing 
any obstacle to the free, full exercise of his omnipo- 
tence in the work of human salvation, actually lay his 
power under the severest exactions to do its utmost to 
effect what his moral perfections unappeasably demand. 
From the truth, then, that the divine omnipotence can- 
not contravene the divine nature as a whole, we have 
through the preceding argument, the noble corollary 
that divine omnipotence is bound and cannot refuse to 
execute the aspirations of the divine holiness and 
benevolence in securing to each soul its highest possible 
good. 

Taking for granted, now, the universal Christian 
ascription to the Deity of perfect holiness— i. e. perfect 
antagonism to sin — and perfect benevolence — i. e. per- 
fect antagonism to sorrow, combined with and operat- 
ing under the instance of perfect knowledge and wis- 
dom, we reach the direct inquiry whether omnipotence, 
which we have seen implies every sort of power raised 
to the highest degree, re-inforced by every other sort 
of power, and with every advantage of position, pre- 
cedence, tireless patience, exhaustless reserves, and 
unflagging perseverance, whether God, thus circum- 
stanced, who "desires all men to be saved and come 
unto the knowledge of the truth" (i Tim. ii: 4.) will 



42 UNIVERSALIS! CONGRESS. 

be able to "bless us in turning away every one of us 
from our iniquities." (Acts iii: 26.) 

If the Almighty's hand (in spite of prophetic as- 
surance to the contrary) is "shortened that it cannot 
save" (Is. lix:i.) it must be that the salvation of some 
souls is impossible. 

But how is it impossible? Not, surely, in the sense of 
being self nullifying or unthinkable. Not because it is 
inconsistent with perfect benevolence, which rather 
craves and insists upon it. Not because it is inconsis- 
tent with perfect holiness, which is itself destroyed by 
acquiescence in sin as finality. The imaginary demand 
of justice for an infinite penalty upon every sin, ac- 
cording to the strained and distorted scholastic defini- 
tion, is negatived for us by the psalmist's logic, "Unto 
thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy, for thou renderest to 
every man according to his work." (Ps. lxii: 12.) 
"Even-handed justice" is the true mercy, since it is the 
chastening hurt that also heals. Or, we quote with 
equal reliance, the lines of our own modern psalmist: 

"Ye praise his justice, even such 
His pitying love I deem." 

Nor, again, is universal salvation inconsistent with 
"the nature of things," so that omnipotence cannot com- 
pass it. For the nature of things is precisely the same 
for one soul as for another. Since many are admittedly 
saved — saved, remember, not by their own exertions but 
by divine succor, as the prevailing interpretation every- 
where teaches — there can be no inherent impossibility 
in the salvation of the others, or of all. 

These, however, are the only impossibilities, arising 
from the constitution of the divine nature, and of 
the nature of things, which can limit the operations of 
omnipotence. Ergo, omnipotence is not limited in the 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 43 

direction of salvation, which it is therefore competent 
to make universal. 

To this argument, which seems invulnerable, two 
objections are opposed: 

First, it is said that divine power, while not neces- 
sarily and eternally limited in respect to human in- 
fluence, has voluntarily put limit upon itself by adopt- 
ing a certain "plan of redemption" which Revelation 
publishes. 

It does not fall within the province of this paper 
to discuss the alleged Scriptural grounds for the con- 
tention that God has imposed manacles upon his own 
freedom, has set arbitrary boundaries to his own love 
for men and abhorrence of sin. It suffices to say that 
Universalist scholarship vigorously contests the inter- 
pretation which leads to such self-evident absurdity; 
and that the very attributes of God, which constitute 
the core and climax of Revelation, render the inter- 
pretation untenable. 

The " scheme of redemption" alluded to, involves 
three items, to which we may briefly attend: 

1. That human nature is self-vitiated, corrupted, 
perverted and incompetent to plan, desire, or execute 
reform. Nevertheless its destiny hinges upon its free 
acceptance or rejection of the divine proffer of rescue. 
Obviously where there is no ability to recognize or ap- 
prove the good, there is no liberty to choose it. But 
even here cannot he who created re-create? Say that a 
man is reduced by sin to a state of helplessness, is it 
the utmost that omnipotence can do to offer help that 
cannot even be perceived, to reach out a hand to a 
paralytic, or throw a rope to a man already unconscious 
in the coma of drowning? 

2. The " scheme " supposes that only/vz/^z'tf/provision 



44 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

has been made for human redemption. For it is but 
mockery to call that provision impartial which it is 
foreknown will be inadequate to the redemption of 
more than a portion of mankind. We have seen, how- 
ever, that the universal attributes of God render him 
impotent to act in a partial way, or to do less than all 
that is possible for the good of every one of his 
children. 

3. The "scheme" limits salvation to a certain arbitrary 
method, and, in particular, limits its opportunity to 
this earthly life. Now, allowing for argument's sake, 
that a system so unnatural and artificial could ever have 
been entertained in the same mind which instituted the 
sublime processes of nature, still what is done arbitrarily 
can arbitrarily be undone, when its tenure is solely in 
the will of the doer. 

For instance, no one can suppose there is any in- 
herent necessity for limiting earthly life to seventy years 
as its normal term. It appears to be credible that in 
earlier epochs man's mortal span was far longer than 
that. It is certain that the actual average of life has 
been sensibly advanced, even within the past decade, 
by wider knowledge and more natural modes of living. 
Nothing is known to physiology or anatomy which 
need make it impossible to extend the earthly period 
quite indefinitely, it may be for hundreds, it might be 
for thousands of years. Surely omnipotence could 
accomplish this extension. It could, and it ought, at 
least to guarantee the allotted limit to each man, 
whereas few in fact attain it and, on the whole, reckon- 
ing all extremes — the baby whose life force yields but a 
single gasp and the centenarian — the average allowance 
is only a little more than half of the three score and 
ten. Yet will any one dare to affirm that if for the profli- 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 45 

gate and depraved the experience here on the earth 
of the illusoriness of sin, of its vapid as well as its poig- 
nant results, or, on the other hand, the observation of 
the solidity and splendor of the results of righteousness 
were continued for a hundred, two hundred, five hun- 
dred years, we know he would still go on mutilating, 
tormenting, disappointing himself, with utter irreclaim- 
able hardness towards the gentle overtures of truth and 
love? The logic of cause and effect, the makeup of 
human nature, repudiate that prophecy. 

Or, look over the entire field of divine possibility, 
even under the operations of the imagined " plan of re- 
demption." We cannot say that creation itself was 
necessary. We cannot say that just the particular style 
of creation which exists was necessary. We cannot say 
that the continuance of the creation is necessary. To 
say so would deny the freedom of God. There was, 
then, the original escape from the atrocity of begetting 
human beings for a hopeless doom, of not creating at 
all, or of creating so as to avoid the doom which popu- 
lar theology forebodes. There is now, if a blunder was 
then made, the resource of annihilation. This, it may 
be retorted, would amount to the self-stultification of 
God. I answer, not a thousandth part so much as the 
endless damning of helplessness in the name of love 
and justice! 

Or, again, it must be possible for omnipotence to 
make the penalties of wrong-doing prompter and more 
palpable; or the ministers of righteousness more elo- 
quent in speech, more skillful in generalship, more gen- 
erous in gifts. Might not this save some, perhaps all? 

In general, we may say of such a "scheme" as is 
supposed that, depending upon nothing but the choice 
of God, it must be susceptible of amendment or even of 



46 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

repeal at his pleasure. That is, he cart change it if he 
wishes to, and the only ground for alleging that he 
will not wish to is the assumption that the present 
status is tending invincibly towards the only goal of 
universal holiness and happiness which could satisfy 
his perfections. 

The second objection to our application of the divine 
omnipotence is that free-will cannot be forced, and is 
capable of acquiring a permanent evil propensity which 
will assure its eternal choice of wrong. 

Then, we rejoin, whatever explanation is given, God 
is not omnipotent. He is balked and foiled in his pur- 
poses. He does not have his own way! 

But our answer may be more specific: 

ist. Is it true that the will is beyond control, and 
may become fixed in error and folly? 

(a) Many distinct scriptural affirmations tell the 
contrary story. For example, "The king's heart is in 
the hand of the Lord like the water-courses; he turneth 
it whithersoever he will" (Prov. xxi, I.) "God worketh 
in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure," 
(Phil, ii, 13.) 

(b) Some men are saved. That is, volition can be 
influenced without being violated. 

{c) There is an actual reign of God in history, there 
is a confessed Providential divinity which "shapes our 
ends, rough-hew them as we will." Which shows 
that God may circumvent human freedom without sub- 
verting it, is not less free himself because he made man 
free. 

(d) The power that controls matter gets thereby 
large, if not absolute, control over mind. The relation 
of mutual dependence between mind and matter in the 
mundane state of man is a study yet in its infancy, but 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 47 

already far enough advanced to indicate that environ- 
ment plays a salient part in the free choice of men. 
The mind, like the chameleon, is much subdued to 
what it dwells with. Some wit has not inaptly re- 
marked that the difference of a quarter of an inch in 
the width of his shoe-sole may convert an optimist into 
a pessimist. Or, as Edgar A. Poe dreams of the angel 
Israfel, according to the Koran sweetest of heaven's 
singers, "whose heart-strings are a lute:" 

"If 1 could dwell where Israfel hath dwelt, 

And he where I, 

He might not sing so wildly well 

A mortal melody; 

While a bolder note than this might swell 

From my lyre in the sky." 

It is no part of Universalist theory to affirm that 
man is the subject of circumstances. Yet often, no 
doubt, his transplantation to more favorable conditions 
would involve the transformation of his purposes. And 
a special opportunity, nay, a necessity for such change 
is implied in the experience called death. He who 
opens his eyes upon the scenes of eternity, as all do in 
their turn, beholds everywhere novelty, a new epoch, 
the certainty of spiritual facts, new relations, new com- 
panionships. Is it impossible that omnipotence should 
so manipulate these novel investitures as to overcome 
man's scruples against his own well-being, and win a 
son's response to a Father's love? 

(e) Once more, there are no known "incorrigibles." 
The Gospels treat all men as alike competent to repen- 
tance, except under the paralysis of an artificial despair, 
caused not by consciousness of sin, but by the threats 
of a pitiless creed. No man doubts his ability to reform, 
with the help of that omnipresent grace which the 
divine nature has incarnated in the nature of things. 



48 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

(/) Man's freedom — like that of his maker — does 
not mean ability to do anything whatsoever, but only 
to act in harmony with human nature and with the 
nature of things. His choices are conditioned by his 
desires, and his desires are conditioned by his knowl- 
edge. It may be said unqualifiedly that the sinner is 
the victim of illusions, of the fancy that his mistaken 
act will somehow do him good. He may be responsible 
in a measure for his blindness, but blind he certainly is. 
Open his eyes to the facts of the spiritual kingdom, and 
admitting the momentum of habit, it may even be said 
to be impossible for him eternally to prefer poverty to 
riches, weakness to strength, strife to peace, misery to 
blessedness. 

Now we know that it is the nature of mere appetite 
to cloy with over-indulgence of passion; to be itself 
consumed with the flame of its own lust; of every vice 
in its later stages to grow loathsome. Mind cannot be 
forever impervious to these facts, and free-will cannot 
forever ignore them. 

Knowledge, in truth, is something that cannot be 
permanently avoided. It is the nature of the eye to 
see and of the ear to hear; and, however stunted these 
organs may become, it is insupposable that the one 
should forever mistake darkness for light, or the other 
imagine discord to be harmony- 
Reflect, now, that in a spiritual world it is inevitable 
that heaven and hell should be contiguous; that no 
part of the universe or creature in it can be shut out 
from the divine omnipresence, that, thus beset by 
God and by the eloquence of the contrast between 
his own sad plight and the serene fortunes of the 
blessed, he cannot but cry out against his chains and 
long for emancipation; that such a cry is at least quasi 



DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. 49 

repentance, and such longing is the aspiration which 
lifts by its exercise — and what is there, except an ar- 
bitrary and mechanical "scheme," impossible to the 
thought of a Being of infinite attributes, which can pre- 
vent this new and truer knowledge, this nobler desire, 
from effecting their natural transmutations of character 
in the eternity beyond the grave, as well as in the 
eternity this side the grave? 

It is incompatible with the definition of free-will 
that it should be coerced either to salvation or to dam- 
nation. But while force is futile, persuasion remains. 
The final loss of a soul would imply its ability forever 
to prefer the known worse to the known better, a sort 
of freedom (the negative of true freedom) which, hav- 
ing no actual existence in human beings, serves only to 
illustrate the grotesque possibilities of unrestricted 
metaphysical moonshine. Mind thus grown impervious 
to light, heart thus emptied of its natural power to love 
the lovely, would be no longer mind or heart. Man 
would have become a mere automaton, and, if any real 
entity survived that cataclysm, would be only a thing, 
which, having no interior capacity of self-motion, could 
and should be coerced from without. 

Here our argument comes to an end. If every de- 
tail of suggestion has not been treated, the principles 
which must determine the full solution, have, I think, 
been enunciated. The offense of Universalism is that it 

"Dare not fix with mete and bound, 
The love and power of God." 

It sees in man a creature bearing divine attributes, 
but warped by waywardness and wilfulness from their 
true proportion and purpose. Upon that distortion the 
condemnation of the universe is heaped. All the forces 
of nature press upon it, not madly, but with sublime 



50 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

concert and infallible sagacity, to restore the violated 
balance. All the power of the Eternal is pledged to its 
correction. Against it man's own nature, groaning un- 
der the penalties of transgression, protests in mortal 
fear and pain. It has no friend without, no excuse 
within. The peace of the creation — may we not say of 
the Creator also — depends upon its cure. The battle 
is superb in its very inequality, but it can end only one 
way. The individual against the universe; the one 
against the all; the exception against the rule; the made 
against the Maker; the feeble against the Almighty; 
the stupid against the All-knowing; the easily spent 
against the Inexhaustible; the finite against the Eter- 
nal — can there be any question as to the sequel? 

Universalism answers: "He sitteth upon the circle 
of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grass- 
hoppers." God must win; man also will win, and come 
off more than conqueror through the conquest of God, 
even over himself. 

Presentation Day, Hall of Washington, Sept. ij. 



IV. 

UNIVERSAL HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS 

The Final Result of God's Government. 



T 



BY JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS, D. D. 



.HE end of all theological inquiry is the question 
_L of destiny. That is the inevitable and final 
problem toward which all our religious thinking tends. 
The doctrine concerning the "last things" is not merely 
the chronological sequel to all other divine truths; it 
is the logical conclusion which gives meaning and life 
to all the rest. The course of the creative process 
foretells the conclusion; the conclusion explains the 
process. It is not, therefore, the gratification of an idle 
speculative passion which leads man to ponder so seri- 
ously the destiny to which his own life is unfolding, to 
which the whole cosmos advances. The solution of 
that mystery must either exalt his soul with joy or sink 
it in disappointment and dread. For he can only view 
with distress a consummation which shall leave his pray- 
ers unanswered, his best endeavors frustrated, his whole 
life defeated. He can have no pleasure in a prophetic 
vision which reveals a universe perpetually at strife, 



52 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS, 

rent with an everlasting feud, scandalized by an eter- 
nally irretrievable failure. 

It is with reason, therefore, that the doctrine of 
the final triumph of good over evil has been proclaimed 
with such emphasis by those who would vindicate the 
character of the Heavenly Father, and assert the om- 
nipotence of the divine love. To insist upon the cen- 
tral truth of Universalism is simply to recognize the 
logic of the creation. It is to reason the religious prob- 
lem to a real solution. It is to recognize the demands 
of a faith which may subsist with love, and of a love 
which would secure itself in faith. It is to answer the 
persistency of the human soul in its resolute demand to 
know the truth and the whole truth about the future 
toward which it so steadfastly moves. Those who 
minimize the importance of this teaching, who think it 
can be evaded, or ignored, or silenced, do not give just 
weight either to its logical importance or to the rela- 
tion it bears to the most anxious questionings of the 
human heart. Logic and love unite in the demand for 
a prediction as to destiny which shall consist with the 
divine love and life. 

But for fifteen hundred years the teachings of Chris- 
tendom have been hopelessly out of joint. Premise 
and conclusion of the creeds have contradicted each 
other. The doctrine of the divine fatherhood and love 
has been suffering a perpetual eclipse under the dreary 
prophecy of everlasting woe, evil without end, as the 
destiny of the moral universe. For the church has given 
its assent to the doctrine that the destiny of a portion 
of the human race is woe without limit in duration or 
intensity. It has taught the perpetuity of sin, the end- 
lessness of moral evil, the triumph of God's foes over 
his power, their successful resistance of his loving will. 



UNIVERSAL HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS. 53 

It has believed in the inherent superiority of evil over 
good. It has taught that error is stronger than truth, 
darkness than light, hatred than love. It has pictured 
a future for the human race which is black with hope- 
less doom; a future which contradicts at once the love 
of God and his power; which practically refutes the 
doctrine of his fatherhood; which sends human affec- 
tion back from its questionings of the future, smitten 
with a hopeless terror or despair. " I believe in God 
the Father Almighty," begins the creed of the church; 
and opens its confession with a note of jubilant faith. 
" I believe in the eternal perdition of the wicked," is its 
unspoken conclusion; and so closes with a sob of pity 
and despair. The creed of popular Christianity calls 
for a new, a more consistent, a more cheering culmina- 
tion. Faith and love both recoil from the terrible anti- 
climax which ends the popular creed. 

The logic of the divine fatherhood requires a doc- 
trine concerning destiny which will not affront every 
sentiment of adoration for the divine being by repre- 
senting the All Father as acquiescing in eternal ruin 
and woe for any child of his love; a doctrine which will 
not affirm the eternal defeat of the divine will, the ever- 
lasting confusion of the divine righteousness; a doc- 
trine which will not inflame the uttermost horizons of 
futurity with the lurid rays of an indestructible hell; a 
doctrine which is at one with the splendid vaticinations 
of modern thought in its visions of a cosmos develop- 
ing toward harmony and peace; a doctrine which fore- 
sees victory to the armies of God, and leaves the soul 
contented with the assurance of a great day of recon- 
ciliation and harmony unclouded by the rebellion of a 
single sentient creature. 



54 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS, 

To state such a doctrine, to define and to defend it, 
has been in large measure the office of those who have 
upheld the Universalist faith. It has been their duty 
and privilege to assert and reiterate the one necessary 
and inevitable culmination of the moral development 
of the creation, which is consistent with the assertion 
of the divine love and power. That climax of the 
creative work must be the complete establishment of 
the good. It means the elimination of moral evil. It 
means, not the prolongation, but the extinction of sin, 
its complete extirpation from the soul whose evil choice 
has given it being. Evil, moral evil, the only real and 
dreadful evil in the universe, is finally and in the last 
analysis, the refusal of the soul to obey the law of God, 
It is the rebellion of the will against the rules of the 
creation. It is resistance to right. It is the choice and 
the love of unrighteousness. No conquest is a real 
conquest which does not alter and destroy all these 
false relations of the soul to its duty and its proper 
life. The victory of God, the triumph of good over 
evil, is not achieved until that choice is reversed, that 
love changed to aversion, the resistance of the sinful 
soul overcome, its rebellion reduced, its refusal re- 
called. Health we consider our physical good; disease 
is physical evil. But disease is overcome only when 
health is restored. The physician does not cure, he 
does not conquer the physical disturbance by simply 
isolating the patient. That is a procedure which merely 
prevents infection and the spread of the disease. But 
putting the patient in hospital or pesthouse was never 
yet deemed a conquest of the malady. There is away 
of fighting disease so as to master it. Sickness can 
be overcome, the disordered functions regulated, the 
quickened pulse reduced, the fever allayed, the delirium 



UNIVERSAL HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS. $$ 

banished. To talk as if anything less than this were 
a conquest of the disease would be an abuse of terms. 
A treatment which should perpetuate the morbid con- 
ditions, keep up the febrile disturbance, permit the 
disease germs to mature and establish their hold on the 
patient would never be called a therapeutic success. 
Neither would a course of treatment which should 
gradually drug the senses and annihilate the functions. 
To perpetuate the disease or to kill the patient is not 
a triumph of medical skill. The only conquest of the 
diseases of the body, the physical evils of life, is the 
curing and removal of them. 

The same law holds of social evils. The wicked- 
ness which infects every great community of men, in- 
surrection against law, defiance of authority, violence, 
personal vice, is pervasive and omnipresent. But if it 
were possible to confine it within prescribed limits; if 
malefactors could be put under lock and key and vice 
absolutely confined within definite precincts; if we were 
thus enabled to hold the manifestation and activities of 
evil thoroughly under control; still it could with no fit- 
ness be said that social evil was conquered. Evil is 
never overcome by merely concentrating it. The crim- 
inal is not less a criminal because he is locked up. 
There is precisely as much vice in society as there was 
when it was permitted to run at large. The only differ- 
ence is one of geography. Society does not overcome 
its evils by restraint and repression. The soldier and 
the policeman are only temporary necessities, mere 
makeshifts of progress, representing not a final, but a 
transient and temporary expedient. The functions 
they represent belong to an imperfect society, a type 
which can never be deemed the end of civilization, but 
only one of the steps toward that end. The ideal of 



56 UNIYERSALIST CONGRESS. 

the philanthropist includes something more than a well- 
policed city; it has in view a city which needs no con- 
straints. The aim of the reformer and of the preacher 
is not a political estate in which the armies of great 
nations shall hold one another in mutual and reciprocal 
check; they seek to bring in a time in which there shall 
be no more war because the nations shall have ceased 
to hate one another 

What other law than this shall we expect to find 
holding sway in the larger process of redemption? 
How can we conceive of the great labor of divine love, 
the removal of moral evil, the destruction of sin, ex- 
cept as a conquest of the same kind? Evil is every- 
where one. Great or little, in large organisms or small, 
in fractions of human society, or in its totality, it is ever 
the same derangement, disease, disturbance of moral 
and spiritual functions. It can never, therefore, be 
overcome, save by rearrangement, by cure, by the res- 
toration of internal harmony. The conquest of evil is 
the establishment of good. The triumph of good is its 
substitution for evil. The only way to overcome evil 
is to eradicate it; the only way to eradicate it is to con- 
vert it into good. 

That is no proper definition, therefore, of the 
triumph of good over evil which describes it as a dis- 
posal of the wicked which shall shut them up in a 
place, circumscribe their powers, of harm, cut them off 
from other creatures, house them in hell forever. If 
moral evil is a failure of the creature to realize its 
Creator's will; if sin is the wilful infraction of divine 
law, how are the failure and the infraction overcome 
by making them perpetual? If sin is the chaos of mis- 
guided passions, undisciplined instincts, defiant volitions 
in which the evil heart involves itself, how does our 



UNIVERSAL HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS. $7 

Father reduce that chaos by withholding every re- 
generative influence, every recreative power, and suffer- 
ing it to remain chaos forever? Is the sinner less a sin- 
ner when he is isolated from all good souls, quarantined 
and confined in some dungeon of the universe? Is he 
any more in harmony with the divine will when he is 
sentenced to defy that will forever? Is his rebellion over- 
come if he remains a rebel for all eternity? Is his de- 
fiance subdued as long as he still defies? Is God's will 
victorious as long as man's will remains unsubjugated 
and disobedient? The only subjugation of sin is that 
which repentance and reformation secure. Sin is over- 
come only when it gives place to righteousness and love. 
It is scarcely better than a parody upon divine power to 
represent God as acquiescing in the eternal rebellion 
of the sinful, and then to treat that consent as if it were 
a triumph of divine might. God bids man serve and 
love him. Man refuses, disobeys and hates. Then, 
God commands again, continue in your disobedience 
and hatred forever. This, forsooth, is what the popu- 
lar theology calls the triumph of God, and the con- 
quest of sin. 

It is impossible that Christian theology should long 
consent to receive for true, such a misrepresentation of 
the divine procedure. A triumph which confirms the 
power God is striving to overcome; a triumph which 
perpetuates the antagonism he seeks to remove; a 
triumph which demonstrates the utter insufficiency of 
the divine forces; a triumph which leaves the field in 
possession of the enemy; which ends while the armies 
of God are still beleaguering the stubborn citadel of 
the human soul; even after aeons of eternity have rolled 
away — this may be indeed the victory which Paul 
means when he points to the coming day when Christ, 



58 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

the Father's great Lieutenant, ''shall have put all ene- 
mies under His feet, that God may be all and in all." 
But if it is, we shall be justified in calling the destruc- 
tion of the Armada a Spanish success and the War of 
the Revolution a triumph of British arms. 

It is not logically possible to entertain such a con- 
ception of divine power and activity. There is no mid- 
dle ground consistent with infinite power and love, be- 
tween the doctrines of dualism and the belief in the 
final holiness of all souls. The Lord of lords, and King 
of kings shall triumph in no such nominal fashion as 
this. Not His to win as conquerors do who exile, en- 
slave and crush their foes. He will overcome evil with 
good. He will reconcile all things unto Himself. He 
will not leave the power He has been battling to breathe 
defiance and treason forever, nor permit everlasting 
disobedience to mock at His might. When God 
triumphs He will sweep the field. He will carry the 
war into the enemy's country. He will subjugate, not 
surround; He will bring under, not to bay; He will not 
perpetuate, but reduce and reconcile the estrangement 
of the evil. He will never leave the spirit of insurrec- 
tion to grow fiercer throughout eternity. His hatred of 
sin will destroy sin. His love will triumph only when it 
is met by man's answering love; only when the cry 
comes up from the nethermost hell, the cry for which 
creation waits and listens with longings unspeakable, 
the cry foretold in the story of the prodigal son, and 
destined at last to come from the heart of the most 
reprobate and outcast rebel, "I will arise and go to my 
Father." That is the true, the final triumph of God, 
the victory of good over evil. 

But it is always pertinent to inquire whether the 
foreshadowings of human thought, the logic of the in- 



UNIVERSAL HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS. 59 

tellect informed by the heart, and of the heart enlight- 
ened by the understanding, are justified or confirmed 
by any logic of nature. How do the laws of life sus- 
tain our prayers or our prophecies? Does the universe 
deny or confirm our hopes? If we seek the affirmations 
of nature in their relation to the great problem of the 
ultimate fate of evil and the evil soul, we find them 
full of hopeful omens and forecasts. Nature is a baf- 
fling guide. It is easy to make her sayings oracular, 
and even contradictory. But the more deeply she is 
studied, the more cheering do her pages grow. The 
dogmas of science are affording less and less shelter to 
the pessimists with every restatement of her truths. It 
would be possible to cite a long array of her testi- 
monies, which go to confirm the faith born of the gos- 
pel, in the universal and final reign of righteousness. 
But probably they are all summed up and included in 
that law which science lays down, and which experi- 
ence demonstrates to be true in every application to 
life and to development, the law which is among the 
most sweeping and comprehensive ever formulated, ap- 
plying as clearly to the growth of the soul as to the 
trickling of a stream of water, the law that motion is al- 
ways in the direction of the least resista?ice. 

Motion always follows the line of least resistance or 
of greatest traction, or the resultant of the two. The 
orbit of every planet in our system is along the line of 
least resistance. So is every breeze which blows across 
the face of the earth. The crooked roots of the tree 
are a record of the obstacles they have met, and the 
easements as well, in the course of their growth along 
this line of least resistance. The multiplication of 
forms of life is a revelation of where the line has run of 
least resistance to their continuance. The development 



60 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

of the individual and the evolution of society follow 
the same law. The man's growth is the resultant of 
the greatest tractions and the least resistances, and men 
choose their pursuits and exercise their activities, pop- 
ulations find their homes and labor expends its exer- 
tions along lines where the strongest inducements draw 
and the fewest hindrances oppose. The march of 
nations and the trend of their civilizations, all move- 
ments of all phases and forms of life, submit to this 
same guiding principle. It is a law whose sweep is 
co-extensive with the life of the creation. It is a law 
which may, indeed, have received too much emphasis. 
It is probable that men have laid so much stress upon 
the pull of external forces — the influence of environ- 
ment as they have called it — that they have neglected 
to give due weight to the co-ordinate or reciprocal fact, 
the push of the internal forces, the responsive impulse 
of the germ and its developed vitality. But it is an 
established law of the evolution of the cosmos. It is 
part of the vast and majestic array of forces which are 
weaving the web of God's gracious purpose. And it is 
a fact fraught with the most serene and hopeful light 
for the future of the human race, the great family of the 
souls of mea 

For, in the first place, it calls to mind all that wonder- 
ful, complex, and infinite net-work of forces which are 
in the service and under the control of the Eternal Love. 
Man's environment is God's universe. The tractions 
and the resistances of man's will are the sworn subjects 
and servants of the Heavenly Father. He who deter- 
mines from the beginning in what direction the line of 
least resistance to the human soul shall be projected, 
is the everlasting friend and lover of that soul. If, 
therefore, we were to predict the direction of that line 



UNIVERSAL- HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS. 6l 

from the nature of Him who has arranged it, we must 
conceive it as running altogether through the points of 
harmony, of righteousness, of holiness, which is whole- 
ness of life. Because God, the framer of creation, is the 
Father of all souls, we can form no thought of the 
progress of the human race which does not consist with 
His love and care for man. Because God loves his 
children we may look to see the path laid out before 
the feet of the advancing race leading toward a goal of 
good to all. The divine fatherhood could draw no 
other line. 

If we turn from the character of Him who has 
staked out the great highway of human progress, to the 
indications along that way of its final goal, we find the 
strongest confirmation of our hopes and our prophecies. 
Within and without the soul, in the nature of man and 
the nature of things outside him, the line of least 
resistance is in the direction of goodness, the fulfilment 
of the soul's true life, conformity to the divine will and 
purpose. All a man's inner nature protests against the 
deflections of sin. VVe resist our own selves, or rather 
we have all our own moral organization against us when 
we do evil. Sin is the violation of our own natures, 
and when we do violence to those natures there is a 
great outcry from within. Looking into the soul alone, 
we find that "the way of the transgressor is hard." His 
own nature is a constant resistance and hindrance to 
the sinner. The resistance which man's soul makes to 
every fresh indulgence in evil, the unrest of the pas- 
sions, the pangs of remorse, the still more bitter tor- 
ment of evil dispositions whose satiety brings still in- 
satiate cravings — all attest the fact that his moral 
nature is organized so as to make the line of least 
resistance run in the direction of righteousness. 



62 UNlVERSAUST CONGRESS. 

But sin, moral evil, is not only against the nature of 
the soul. It is against the outward nature of things as 
well. It is contrary to man's environment. He who 
allies himself with wickedness is in perpetual collision 
with the creation. He becomes involved in a quarrel 
with every interest of the human brotherhood, with 
every institution devised for man's well being, with the 
currents of law which sweep through the universe from 
high to low, with the cohesions of society, and with the 
gravitation of events. He is against his own body, he 
is against every atom of matter and every ounce of 
force. Every sin puts its perpetrator in resistance to 
the universe. "The stars in their courses fought against 
Sisera." As Milton sings, putting a law of the cosmos 
into the poet's numbers, and describing the sequences 
of man's act of disobedience: 

"Earth trembled from her entrails, as again 

In pangs; and nature gave a second groan; 

Sky lowered, and muttering thunder, some sad drops 

Wept at completing of the mortal sin." 

Thus do we find the nature of man and the nature 
of things conspiring to "make the way of transgessors 
hard," to put resistances in the way of the sinful soul, 
to cause the line of least resistance to run in the 
direction of holiness. But these two sets of forces, the 
organism and the environment, the soul and its sur- 
rounding world, are the two decisive elements in 
spiritual evolution. The development of a soul depends 
on the nature of the world within and the world with- 
out that soul. If we find them both co-ordinated and 
tending to one and the same end, can we make any 
other conclusion than that God intends and is working 
out the final harmony and righteousness of the human 
race? When God made the way of transgressors hard, 
and when He caused the path of the just to shine 



UNIVERSAL HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS. 63 

brighter and brighter unto the perfect day, He prophe- 
sied the direction in which our race is to move. He 
indicated the destiny of man. He forecast the con- 
summation of the ages. He foreshadowed the moral 
order and the progress of man: 

"One law, one element 

And one far-off, divine event, 

Toward which the whole creation moves." 

This is the glorious message which the sacred writ- 
ings announce, which Israel was commissioned to bear, 
which makes the gospel the "glad tidings" to the 
world. It is the fashion to speak of the "optimism" 
of the Jews, as if that were an accident of their national 
temperament. It is, in fact, the very key-note of their 
inspiration. To them it was given to hear the world's 
morning song of hope and expectation in the dark 
night of sin and misery. Theirs was the high privilege 
of seeing and of announcing the final harmony of the cre- 
ation in righteousness and love. From the legends of 
Genesis to the vision of Patmos, the pages of the Bible 
teem with prophecy and implication of the final over- 
throw of evil, the movement of the moral creation in 
the direction ordained by the Divine Love. That sub- 
lime consummation is foreseen, and predicted in the very 
announcement of the advent of moral evil into human 
life, in the declaration that the seed of the woman shall 
bruise the serpent's head. It is proclaimed with in- 
creasing firmness until the pages of the Apocalypse, 
when it swells into the exultant chant which glories in 
the destruction of death and hell in the lake of fire. 
The conception which Israel held of the nature of this 
great triumph of God may be read in those words 
in which the second Isaiah makes Jehovah declare, " I 
have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my 



64 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

mouth and shall not return unto me void, that unto me 
every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear, surely 
shall say: "In the Lord have I righteousness and 
strength." The foregleam of a knowledge of the uni- 
versal fatherhood, which is the guarantee of universal 
good, flashes brightly in the prophet's discernment of 
God's proprietary right in human beings: "All souls 
are mine:" as well as the words put into Jehovah's 
mouth, "Thou hadst pity on the gourd * * * and 
should not I spare Nineveh? " The letters of Paul are 
missives of the good news that the creation is to be de- 
livered from the bondage of corruption into the glor- 
ious liberty of the children of God; that at the name 
of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue con- 
fess; that God will gather together in one all things in 
Christ; that having made peace by the blood of his 
cross, God will reconcile all things unto himself; and 
that when all things shall be subdued unto him, when 
he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and 
power, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto 
him that put all things under him, that God may be all 
in all. The utterances of Jesus, both explicit and im- 
plicit, are full of the calm assurance of a divine fore- 
knowledge that the kingdom of heaven, which he came 
to found, should be a complete and universal dominion. 
It is difficult to give any other than their exact and 
full meaning to his words, "And I, if I be lifted up from 
the earth, will draw all men unto me;" or to his other 
affirmation, "And this is the will ot Him that sent me, 
that of all which he hath given me I should lose noth- 
ing, but raise it up at the last day." Nor does one sub- 
ject his language to any forced interpretation in put- 
ting great stress upon the words which describe the 
shepherd searching for his lost sheep and the woman 



UNIVERSAL HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS, 65 

for her lost money, until they find them. But quite aside 
from such declarations, there is the broad doctrine of 
the Fatherhood of God whose full scope can never be 
reconciled with the continued existence of sin and its 
sequences of misery forever. And surely that is a halt- 
ing logic which announces its belief that the Son of 
Man came to seek and to save that which is lost, and 
equips him in its thought with all the resources of the 
Heavenly Father, and then concludes that his mission 
will fail of its great purpose, and his love behold the 
travail of his soul and be but half satisfied. Let Chris- 
tian faith take courage. Let it expand its expectations 
to the broadest limits of God's love and power. Let 
men see in the new heavens and the new earth the 
holy city which is the abode, not of a handful of the 
elect, nor even of a multitude which still lacks the com- 
pleteness of the whole human family, but of a race re 
deemed, ransomed from sin, released from the bondage 
of iniquity, a city wherein there shall be no more curse, 
"neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any 
more pain," where "the Lord God giveth them light," 
and "they shall reign forever and ever." 

Finally, the prediction which we feel to be war- 
ranted by the nature of evil and its relation to the soul, 
by the character of the environment which helps to 
shape the direction of progress, and by the utterances 
of the Holy Spirit, — this thrice iterated message 
to the soul, is confirmed by the backward look 
which discloses the way of human progress. History 
is prophecy. The future is writ in the past. The 
record of our race shows one long, unremitting con- 
flict, from the dreary lowlands where the human race 
began to the fair plains where now it builds the cities 
of its pride. But it is a running battle toward peace, 



66 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

purity and perfection. Man has fought his way to the 
higher life. All his upward struggle has pointed to a 
time when good shall triumph over evil, holiness pre- 
vail over sin, and the final victory rest in very truth 
with the cohorts of God. That is the meaning of all 
the movement, turmoil, strife and struggle from the 
beginning until now, from now until the great consum- 
mation. It has all pointed toward the victory of right- 
eousness. Good must triumph and all the brood of 
evil things which infest existence be destroyed. That 
was the meaning of the struggle for existence which 
peopled the earth with living creatures, each the best 
of its kind; that was the meaning of the struggle be- 
tween man and brute which gave the dominion of the 
earth to man; that was the meaning of the struggle for 
food and for land which pushed the vigorous tribes of 
the primeval world ever westward, bearing with them 
a better civilization; that was the meaning of ancient 
wars with all their pain and loss. All these discords 
and strivings are the long apprenticeship of the race 
for a life of harmony, the reign of law and of love and 
of light. All the strife within the heart itself, has 
looked to the rule of best in man over the worst, the 
moral over the animal, the good over the evil. The 
first struggle that ever startled the face of the earth 
was the beginning of a movement, a warfare, an on- 
ward march, which was destined to end only in one 
way, — the victory of righteousness, the triumph of 
good over evil, the establishment of holiness as the 
normal condition of all creatures. 

" For Right is Right, since God is God, 

And right the day must win; 
To doubt would be disloyalty, 

To falter would be sin." 

Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 12. 



V. 

HARMONY OF THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 

All God's Attributes Phases of Divine Love. 



BY REV. EDGAR LEAVITT. 



•A LL other Christians unite with Universalists so far 
jt\. as words can go, in saying that God is infinite in 
Love, Justice, Power and Wisdom, and appeal to the 
Scriptures as declaring this doctrine and setting it forth 
in its hitherto highest historic manifestation, in the in- 
carnation, life, words and works, sufferings and death 
of Jesus Christ, in order that mankind through him may 
be raised to a divine life. But many seem to us to com- 
pletely nullify this common profession of faith by other 
beliefs which they also profess to hold. It appears to 
us impossible to believe in the attributes above men- 
tioned, and yet, at the same time, to assent to the 
standard views of the Calvinistic sects, as declared in 
the Westminster Confession of Faith, namely, that 
"God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy 
council of His will, freely and unchangeably foreordain 
whatsoever comes to pass," (Chap, iii, Sec. I,) and 
that: "By the decree of God, and for the manifesta- 
tion of His glory, some men and angels are predestin- 



68 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

ated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained unto 
everlasting death," (Sec. 3,) and that: "These angels 
and men thus predestinated and foreordained are par- 
ticularly and unchangeably designed, and their number 
is so certain and exact that it can be neither increased 
nor diminished." (Sec. 4.) 

Nor on the other hand does the view held with vari- 
ous modifications by the Arminian sects, such as the 
Methodists, Free-will Baptists, and also by Presby- 
terians, Congregationalists, Baptists and Episcopalians, 
so far as they have departed from the original rigor of 
their doctrinal standards, seem to us any less irrecon- 
cilable with the idea that God is infinite in the attri- 
butes of Love, Justice, Power and Wisdom, than the 
Calvinistic teaching above referred to. 

The great objection to the Calvinistic idea is, that 
God could not be kind and good, and yet having the 
foreordaining of all things in his hands, freely and un- 
changeably ordain a certain part of the human race be- 
fore the foundation of the world "to everlasting death," 
by which is not to be understood extinction of con- 
scious being, but "subjection to the wrath of God, the 
curse of the law, to all miseries, both temporal and 
external," (Chap, vi, Sec. 6,) "and to the pains of hell 
forever," (Answer to question 19, Shorter Cate- 
chism.) 

Neither could He be considered just and impartial, 
since not only the foreordination of the great difference 
between the "elect" and the "non-elect" was "without 
foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in 
either of them, or any other thing in the creature 
as conditions or causes moving Him thereunto." 
(Chap, iii, Sec. 5.) It was unconditional and arbitrary, 
while Justice is believed to have some reference to con- 



DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 69 

ditions and causes, and Reason, to merits and demerits. 

Again, it is felt to be unjust, and unmerciful because 
it makes the unfortunate victims of the divine displeas- 
ure, though blameless, utterly helpless to avert, by 
anything they can possibly do, the terrible doom de- 
creed by the infinite Sovereign of the Universe. It 
seems by its doctrine of "foreordination of whatsoever 
comes to pass" to utterly destroy the freedom of the 
will, to introduce fatalism, and thus to destroy all just 
moral responsibility; though it is noteworthy, however 
contradictory it may seem, that this is the only Con- 
fession of Faith, so far as known to the writer, in which 
the freedom of will is explicitly stated. (Chap, iii, Sec. 
1.) Be that as it may, it is a freedom which can affect 
nothing except as foreordained, and hence is prac- 
tically of no account whatever in averting the fore- 
known and predestined doom. 

But the Arminian sects, on the other hand, while 
denying foreordination, assert the divine foreknowl- 
edge in a way that results equally, so it appears to us, in 
nullifying the idea of the infinite Love, Justice, Power 
and Wisdom of God. The foreknowledge of God on 
the other hand, indeed all knowledge, is something more 
than a guess or an opinion. It has the quality of cer- 
tainty or it is not knowledge. And a result foreknown 
is as certain and inevitable as if foreordained by one 
able to bring his purpose to pass. Hence, if the "Fore- 
ordination" of Calvinism logically results in fatalism, 
destroying all just moral accountability, in the popu- 
larly received sense of the term, which it is here 
neither necessary for us to affirm or deny, the "Fore- 
knowledge" of Arminianism, no less logically results in 
fatalism also. 



70 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

We do not assert that the foreknowledge of God is 
equivalent to ordination by God, nor do we assert that 
creation is by itself equivalent to foreordination; but 
we do assert that to create human beings, foreknowing 
that ^/created, endless misery will be their certain and 
inevitable doom, is the same as to foreordain that dread- 
ful doom, even though these human beings shall act 
according to their own free will so far as free will is 
consistent with previous certainty and inevitableness; 
and being thus inevitable, in spite of asserted and ap- 
parent free will, the result appears equally unjust. 

Rev, Dr. Whedon of the Methodist Episcopal 
church endeavors to avoid this difficulty by a theory, 
which, however, his brethren have not yet generally 
accepted, namely: "That it is impossible even for God 
to foreknow the act of a free moral agent." His argu- 
ment, in effect is: that if a certain act was foreknown 
before the foundation of the world, or at any other 
time, it was, by that time at least, determined and fixed, 
hence its determination could not rest with the indi- 
vidual not yet in existence, who ages later, was to per- 
form the foreknown act; hence his will is not free to 
determine, or not to determine, the said act which had 
been already determined. 

To this his objectors might reply: "To say that God 
does not foreknow whatsoever comes to pass from the 
beginning, is to limit His knowledge, which may not be 
done, since that knowledge is infinite. But it this be 
true, then objectors must accept the other alternative 
of limiting his Justice and Love, instead of his knowl- 
edge. The advocates of "Whedonism," as it may be 
called, may answer: "Divine knowledge, like all knowl- 
edge, must have a basis of fact — knowledge is a cog- 
nizance of fact — no fact — no knowledge. And know!- 



DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. Jt 

edge of the future event is knowledge of the event not 
directly, but knowledge of present elements, of fact 
which must produce that future event. Hence, in order 
to the divine foreknowledge there must be a present 
knowledge, or cognizance of certain elements what- 
ever they may be, which not only may, but must result 
in the act foreknown. These elements predetermined 
the event. 

"Foreknowledge, then, logically necessitates prede- 
termination either by foreordination of God, or by that 
of some other being or beings, who can and will, in 
connection with whatever other elements may be in- 
volved, bring to pass that which is foreknown." 

"If the individual will had as yet no existence, and 
its decisions were as yet therefore undetermined, then its 
decisions could as yet have no existence, in any sense 
whatever, either in esse, or in future, in the purpose of 
any existent being or beings, or in the properties of 
any elements which would necessitate the foreknown 
outcome; therefore they had no existence whatever — 
were in no sense facts; hence could not be cognized or 
known. And as knowledge is cognizance of fact, 
where there is no fact there is no knowledge, for there 
is nothing to know, and to say that one does not know 
that which in any sense is not, is not a limitation of 
knowledge — hence not of the divine foreknowledge." 

"Whedonism" would thus attempt to save the in- 
finite Love of God by claiming that He did not fore- 
see or foreknow what the dreadful final outcome would 
be, as others would attempt to save the infinite Knowl- 
edge and Wisdom of God, by sacrificing the divine 
Justice and Love. It certainly cannot be conceded 
that God has no final purpose in the creation, and that 
He has not foreseen and predetermined the outcome. 



7$ UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

To concede this would certainly be to yield our faith in 
His infinite Wisdom and Power; and were we to concede 
that that final purpose was not one of good for all, we 
should yield also our faith in His infinite Love and Jus- 
tice; for being free to create or not to create, if he had 
not created at all, it would have been no loss or injus- 
tice to any, while to create in view of the awful and in- 
evitable doom, is certainly injustice to those predes- 
tined to it. The infinite God with His infinite attributes 
must encompass all things; hence, all extremes, how- 
ever far apart, must be within the circumference of the 
Infinite Love, Justice, Power and Wisdom, and not in- 
consistent with them, nor can these attributes of God 
be inconsistent with each other. 

But it is evident to us that the Calvinistic and 
Arminian views are both inconsistent with the con- 
fession that God is a being of infinite love, justice, wis- 
dom and power, and that the common idea of proba- 
tion by which man, and not God, is made to decide the 
final success or failure of the divine purpose, while it 
destroys the divine supremacy, is at the same time in- 
capable of being harmonized with either theory, one of 
which explicitly asserts, and the other as logically im- 
plies the predetermination of that which the doctrine 
of the probation would leave man to determine. This 
doctrine of probation appears to us to be also equally 
as unsupported by the Scriptures as by right reason. 
It could be but an exceedingly limited love, or justice, 
or power, or wisdom, which, being free to act, or not to 
act, should call the children of God (Luke iii, 38; 
Acts xvii, 28, 29) into being and set them afloat upon 
the great sea of so certain an uncertainty of the final 
result, notwithstanding the forthputting of all the 
divine resources — to run the risk of such a stupendous 



DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 73 

calamity as these systems teach, and with which all 
possible earthly calamities are absolutely incomparable, 
and which all the efforts of God, actuated by his in- 
finite attributes, were powerless to avert. No earthly 
parent could bring children into being realizing the 
risk of such an awful doom and not be considered ex- 
tremely limited in love, justice and wisdom, and stu- 
pendous in selfishness and wickedness. 

All comparisons between human beings and God 
are defective if they do not proceed from that which is 
less to that which is greatest, from that which is excel- 
lent to that which is most excellent, from that which is 
imperfect to that which is perfection itself. If man be 
gifted with free will it is given him for a wise and good 
purpose — the purpose of Him who conferred it. It is 
conferred that it may contribute to the execution of 
that purpose, not that it may render man an indepen- 
dent being so far as to enable him to defeat the purpose 
of God. If man has free will, we may be sure that 
free will is consistent with the final triumph of the 
divine purpose, and that the final triumph of the divine 
purpose is consistent with such free will as man may 
possess. 

It certainly would impeach the divine wisdom to 
assert that it would introduce into the plan an element 
which it foresaw would defeat that plan; it would be an 
impeachment of that wisdom to assert that God could 
not or did not foresee how this element, if introduced, 
would affect the final result; and it would impeach that 
wisdom again to assert that it would introduce an ele- 
ment not knowing what the final effect would be; and 
it would be impeaching the divine power, as well as 
wisdom, to assert that it had created something which 
it could not control for the final purpose designed, 



74 UNIVERSALtST CONGRESS. 

and that without violating the nature which he had 
given it. 

And what the divine will and purpose is, the Scrip- 
tures explicitly declare, namely, to have all men to be 
saved, even (kai) to come to a knowledge of the truth, 
(i Tim., ii:4). It is worthy of notice that the Greek 
word for " will " here is thelo, the will of determination 
and not boulomai, the will of mere willingness, as some 
assert.* " Having made known to us the mystery of 
his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath 
purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the 
fulness of times he might gather together in one all 
things in Christ, both which are in heaven and on earth; 
even in him. In whom, also, we have obtained an in- 
heritance, being predestinated according to the pur- 
pose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel 
of his own will (thelerna) that we should be to the praise 
of his glory who first trusted in Christ."f (Eph. i., 
9-12.) 

All things gathered under one head in Christ whether 
heavenly or earthly. This is ideal; this is a perfect 
consummation, such as all good men and angels would 
delight in and might pray for, and disliked only by the 
evil. This satisfies the demands of the head and the 
heart. This is demanded by the conception of a God 
of attributes of balanced and infinite excellence. 

[*See Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon under Ethelo.'] 

fHaving made known unto us the mystery of his will (thelerna, of deter- 
mination) according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him (Christ), 
unto (or that there should be) a dispensation of the fulness of the (appointed) 
seasons that all things might be gathered under one head in (or hy,en) Christ, 
both which are in heaven and on earth, even in (or by,<?») him (Christ) in (or by, 
en) whom we also have inherited, being predestinated according 10 the purpose 
of him who worketh all things according to the counsel (boule) of his will 
(thelechia,ol determination), so that we who first trusted in Christ should be 
the praise of his glory. — (Compare Greek of Westcott and Hort.) 



DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. ?$ 

But it is not our statement alone that these divine 
attributes are limited and inconsistent with one another 
if these systems be true; it is often confessed by the 
disciples of these various schools of theologic thought. 
It is not unfrequently said that — 

"A God all mercy 
Is a God unjust," 

that the love of God, if he were to permit himself to 
be governed by love alone, would often demand what 
his sense of justice must deny; that the love of God 
would demand what neither his wisdom nor his power 
could effect — in. short, that the divine bosom, so to 
speak, must often be torn by those contending and con- 
tradictory emotions which war in human breasts. Uni- 
versalists, on the contrary, assert that this cannot be, 
that the reason why human bosoms are often the seat 
of contending impulses is because of our finiteness and 
our imperfection. If we were infinitely loving, if our 
love had no imperfection, either in quantity or quality, 
and we were also as wise as loving and as just as wise, 
there could never arise any conflict between these 
principles in our souls, because a true love would never 
desire for the object of its affection that which was not 
best for it, nor does true justice ever demand that 
which is not right; that which is right is always best and 
that which is best in the highest sense is always right. 
Perfect wisdom sees the harmony between them and 
the way in which that harmony might finally be mani- 
fested. Mercy is one pillar of an arch, justice is the 
other, the foundation of both is love. They seem to 
stand apart, but they meet at the top, and the keystone 
of the arch is perfect wisdom. 

The difficulty is that many have incorrect ideas of 
what these terms love, justice, power and wisdom mean. 



76 UN1VERSALIST CONGRESS. 

They have a low, not a high understanding of them. 
Love means to many a mere fondness which may be 
quite as much a love of self as love of the object 
fondled. It denotes with many that lower kind of 
affection which expresses itself in the indulgence of the 
whims, caprices, and notions of the person loved with- 
out regard to his highest, best and most far-reaching 
welfare. True, and at the same time wise love, is quite 
a different thing from all this. This lower kind of love 
is that of fond and foolish parents who pet and caress 
their child and humor his every desire and whim, do 
not cross him in anything, dress him prettily, permit 
him to have his own way, subject him to no inconven- 
ience, to no discipline of mind or body, neither teach 
nor compel him to work, nor inure him to the hardship 
and toil that others have to experience. They cannot 
prick a splinter from his finger because it may make 
their darling cry or grow faint at the sight of blood. 
This course of treatment is to a greater or less extent 
followed by too many parents in all classes of society, 
and the child, if he live through it, will, unless he possess 
such native strength of virtue as to make him almost 
unspoilable, turn out, if lacking in vitality, a namby- 
pamby weakling, yet none the less wicked, or if well 
dowered with vitality, a brutal ruffian: in either case 
neither manifesting nor feeling any sense of gratitude 
or respect for the fond-foolish parents who have lav- 
ished their unwise affection upon him — a spoiled child. 
The other kind of love is of a ruggeder, albeit not 
on that account of a less genuine character, nor deficient 
in strength and quality. These parents are gentle yet 
firm, severe where the best interests of the child seem to 
demand it, insisting on obedience, and wise and strong 
enough to finally secure it, and with it, the respect and 



DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. tf 

affection of the child. The child is taught self-denial 
not self-indulgence, hardiness not weakness, manliness 
not effeminacy, bravery not cowardice, industry not 
idleness, truthfulness not deceit, honesty not knavery, 
regard of others not selfishness, diligence not loitering, 
economy not prodigality, knowledge not ignorance, 
wisdom not foolishness, kindness not cruelty, benevol- 
ence not malice, obedience not lawlessness, self-control 
not madness, chastity not impurity, faith not skepticism 
piety not blasphemy, reverence not flippancy; the aim 
in short, being to strengthen and build up all the virtues, 
and weaken and eliminate all the vices. There will 
not be lacking manifestation of affection in fond 
and loving and comforting ways; but that is the truest 
and highest love, the wisest, justest, and most merciful, 
that seeks the highest and farthest-reaching good, 
though its necessary methods may sometimes seem 
harsh and severe. It may be painful at times, both for 
parent and for child, to enforce justice, but the highest 
good of the child, as well as of all concerned, requires 
it, and therefore wisest love calls for its enforcement. 
Parents who refuse to enforce it lack either in wisdom 
to see the highest good, or in the truest, highest love. 
The love of wise and true parents is like the 
love {agape) of God, (John iv. 8) only his love — like 
himself is infinite and perfect. Justice then not only 
is not inconsistent with true love, but is one of its 
highest phases of manifestation, as mercy is another, 
more generally recognized as such. Yet justice to 
many means not the doing or making to do that which 
is just and right, or enforcing the measures by which 
this is to be secured; it is rather the paying off one in- 
jury by another as great, or even greater, if possible, 
than the one received, the causing of a certain amount 



;8 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

of loss or suffering in mind and body for a certain 
amount of wrong-doing, without regard to the condition 
of wrong-being that led to the wrong-doing, and without 
any expectation or intent of changing it to a condition 
of right-being. Reformation has no place in this idea 
of the purpose of punishment, or if it has, it is only in- 
cidental and not central. Punishment is by too many 
considered simply as vengeance, the wreaking of malice, 
spite, anger, or revenge for the wrong done, rather than 
as chastisement or correction — that which is intended 
to finally chasten, correct, make pure, from evil. 

The attention has been accustomed to dwell upon 
the outward means adopted to effect chastisement 
rather than upon the purpose for which punishment is 
inflicted. So it happens that those noble philanthropists 
who have made a scientific study of penology have ar- 
rived at conclusions far superior to those arrived at by the 
adherents of these theologic systems to which we have 
referred. That correction should be the central aim of all 
punishment is to-day one of the axioms of enlightened 
penology. This mistaken view to which we have re- 
ferred, has for centuries warped many words used in 
this connection from their original meanings, and at- 
tached to them those in accordance with the errors so 
widely held. Thus, punishment is from the Sanskrit 
xooX. pu — to cleanse; the same root is found in pure, 
purge, purgatory. It is also the root of pain, penal, 
penalty, penance, penitence, penitentiary. So also the 
words vengeance, revenge, vengeful, vindictive, vindi- 
cate, etc., have been wrested from their true ori- 
ginal meaning by this tendency of mankind to see 
the external and incidental and lose sight of that which 
is central and essential. Vindicate is still used in a 
good sense, though vindictive is always used in an evil ■ 



DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 79 

sense, yet they, as well as vengeance, are only forms of 
the same Latin word vindicare — to adjudge or enforce 
justice. 

To those unaware of this fact of the popular per- 
version of words, it seems harsh and unworthy to speak 
of God as a "God of vengeance," one who is " vindic- 
tive," etc., and there are those who feel that the Bible 
presentation of the divine character is unworthy on 
this account, and censure those who, in view of this, are 
yet unwilling to surrender faith in its special claims; 
and yet this is but to say of Him, in the true, original 
meaning of the Hebrew word, that God is a just God 
who will see that sooner or later justice shall be done; 
and that though the measures taken may be severe for 
the sufferer and disturbing to our feelings, they are not 
on that account necessarily inimical to his highest final 
interests. 

Nay, as Universalists, we believe that chastisement 
is what he needs, and ought to receive, and that it is 
therefore not an expression of divine malevolence, but 
rightly understood, of the divine love, acting as jus- 
tice. The terms wrath, anger, etc., employed in the 
Scriptures are used "by accommodation," as it is called, 
to describe the divine chastisements as they appear 
from the human standpoint, (as a child might say when 
chastised: " Papa was angry with me," or a parent might 
say to a child: "If you do so papa will be angry with 
you;") yet it is anger in a sense not necessarily incon- 
sistent with the welfare of the child, yea, even seeking 
to promote that welfare. Doubtless there is a divine 
emotion corresponding to the divine action, but it 
would be blasphemous to ascribe in reality to the mo- 
tives of the divine action those limitations of unreason 
and other imperfections, which inhere to a greater or 



80 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

less degree in human motives. Since God is infinite 
and perfect, all his motives, like his acts, must par- 
take of the infinite perfection of his character, how- 
ever expressed. 

Yet, while we assert the above, we must admit that 
we do not always see, nor do we believe it is always 
possible to see, how the direction or permission of cer- 
tain events, in either profane or sacred history, serves a 
good purpose and is therefore consistent with this dec- 
laration. There have been many events in the history 
of individuals, communities, and nations, the love, jus- 
tice and wisdom of which we can not even pretend to 
fathom; but it does not necessarily follow that even 
they are not bottomed, surrounded, and held by the 
hand of the infinite Love, Justice, Wisdom and Power. 
When we were children there were many things in the 
household management that seemed to us inexplicable, 
hard, utterly irreconcilable, with that affection which 
we supposed parents must possess, but when we be- 
came older, and sustained the parental relation our- 
selves, many things which before had been inexpli- 
cable became plain. Human beings, the wisest and 
most far-seeing are but children of the infinite God. 
How then should they expect to completely compre- 
hend in every case just how certain events are consist- 
ent with infinite Love, Justice, Wisdom, and Power, 
even though we may apprehend something of it? 

Events in our own lives have appeared to us inex- 
plicable, yet time, and mental and moral development, 
have shown us at last how all was for the best. Such 
instances are by no means rare. A young man once 
told the writer that in drawing a gun through a fence it 
was discharged, shattering his arm and rendering am- 
putation necessary, nearly costing him his life, and 



DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 8 1 

leaving his nervous system permanently impaired. 
"Yet," said he, "it was one of the best things that ever 
happened to me. It roused my ambition, developed 
my latent responsibilities, and made a man of me." He 
reached an honorable position, though he died prema- 
turely as the result of his nervous impairment. But 
perhaps, as he now looks back from his present sphere, 
he sees in that premature death a blessing as he saw one 
before in the seeming accident of which it was the in- 
direct result. And this may be true of nations that 
seem to have been providentially though even harshly 
removed from the earth. Many cases like these give a 
basis for confidence that it is always so, even in those 
cases where we cannot trace the how ; that God is a 
God, who, though he dwells in the thick clouds and 
darkness round about him, yet brings light out of 
darkness, good out of evil. 

But if this kind of reasoningmay be admissible inthe 
case of evils that are finite in their duration it by no 
means follows that it is in any degree admissible, as 
some perhaps may claim, with regard to evil that is 
endless in its duration. In the former case we can con- 
ceive that the seeming evil might be a means wisely in- 
tended to result in final good, although we were unable 
to see how it could be wise or result in good; but when 
we come to endless sin and misery the case is quite dif- 
ferent. In the former we may not see how it can result 
in good, but in the latter we see that it can not result in 
good, since it has no outcome but an infinite continua- 
tion of itself. The very terms of the problem preclude 
its solution. 

Justice and mercy — the inflicting of penalty or the 
withholding of it and administering comfort — though 
opposite in appearance, are not in fact contradictory to 



82 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

each other, being only different phases of love, the 
central and essential element of the divine character, 
each exhibited or withdrawn, according as the condi- 
tion of all concerned shall seem to the Divine Wis- 
dom to require. Looked at from a high point of view, 
Justice and Mercy are both seen to be essentially one 
and the same and serving the same divine end. 

St. John, the beloved Apostle, who entered most in- 
timately into the heart and mind of Jesus, tells us that 
"God is love, and he that dwelleth in love," therefore, 
"dwelleth in God, and God in him." (I John iv: 8—16.) 
We do not understand by this that God is an abstract 
principle called love. We must beware of the too 
common fallacy of abstractions. There is no such 
thing as Love, Justice, Wisdom or Power, aside from 
some being who is loving, just, wise or powerful. 
Words expressing abstractions are mere conveniences 
of thought and speech. We must beware of becoming 
entangled by them. When St. John says " God is love," 
we do not understand him to declare that God is an ab- 
straction; but to assert in the strongest possible man- 
ner that love, or lovingness, is the great essential and 
central principle of the divine character, and that his 
other attributes are but subsidiary and auxiliary to 
this. 

The Scriptures nowhere tell us that God is Justice 
though he is all-just, that he is Wisdom though he is 
all-wise, that he is Power though he is all-powerful; 
but they do tell us that "God is Love"— the most em- 
phatic declaration that love is central and essential in 
the divine character — not the love of mere fondness or 
passion, the distinction between which and a true, wise 
love we have already noticed, but the love that is ju- 
dicious and judicial, that seeks the highest interest and 
welfare of the loved one. 



DIVINE ATTTRIBUTES. 83 

Love in the highest sense of the term being then the 
central and essential attribute of the divine character, 
his justice must be the Justice of Love, his mercy the 
Mercy of Love, his wisdom the Wisdom of Love, his 
power the Power of Love. And not only this, but the 
divine love is equally all-just, all-merciful, all-wise, all- 
powerful. In the 13th chapter of First Corinthians, this 
love {agape) is thus characterized: "love is long-suf- 
fering (patient) and is useful (or helpful), is not en- 
vious, is not boastful, is not puffed up, behaveth not 
unseemly, seeketh not its own (is not selfish), is not 
provoked (acidified, or thrown into a paroxysm), doth 
not impute evil, rejoiceth not over iniquity, rejoiceth 
with the truth; covereth (or forgiveth) all things, 
trusteth all things, endureth all things. Love never 
faileth." God therefore can not fail. 

This kind of love is the same in man and in God, 
only in man it is finite and imperfect, whereas in God 
it is infinite. Men, therefore, should cultivate this love 
that they may be like their Father in Heaven. "He 
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 
for God is love." 

The divine attributes then are all in harmony with 
one another; they need no reconciliation for they are 
not unreconciled, except to the misunderstanding of 
man, and are incapable of becoming so. The conflict 
which men think they discern is only apparent, not real, 
like the conflicts which the ancients thought they saw 
in nature, and which they thought required many con- 
flicting gods to account for them. Modern science re- 
duces nature's apparent conflicts under unitary law, 
thus corroborating the monotheistic teaching of 
Hebrew-Christian revelation. So will, thought and 
faith, the study of our experience and the Scriptures, 



84 UNIYERSALIST CONGRESS. 

harmonize and unify all the divine attributes in this 
central and essential one of love, and show that St. 
John made no partial or one-sided statement when he 
said: "God is love." Since "God is love," love must 
have purposed, planned, directed, foreseen and fore- 
ordained, final universal holiness, because anything less 
than this would be inconsistent with the divine love 
and with its infinitude; and since "love never faileth," 
God cannot fail in the finally perfect consummation of 
his plan. 

But why any evil at all, even though but temporary, 
yet so long continued, as a means to the final good re- 
sult? may be asked by some. If we adopt the views 
of those who hold, in the popular sense, to the freewill 
of man, (Arminians), we may account for present tem- 
porary moral evil by asserting that it is the result of the 
free will of man crossing the divine will, and that the 
resulting punishment, whether following as a mere con- 
sequence according to the mechanical law of cause and 
effect, or juridically bestowed, is the necessary disci- 
pline and chastisement by which the soul is to be 
taught the bitterness of evil, and by contrast, the 
sweetness of obedience. Moral evil is the resultant of 
the free will of man, though not logically necessitated 
by it; hence man is deserving of punishment, and at 
the same time it is for his good that he receive it, This 
free will which renders evil possible, though not neces- 
sary, is itself a necessity to the development of such 
final results in character as God holds in mind as the 
highest good; without it such final results would be im- 
possible. But if we practically deny " the freedom of 
the will," in the popularly accepted sense, by asserting 
the divine foreordination of " whatsoever comes to 
pass," as some appear to do, then moral evil is but the 



DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 8$ 

necessary consequence of the present immaturity of 
the fruitage which divine providence is slowly ripening 
through the ages to a finally sweet and golden harvest, 
as the bitterness and astringency of unripened fruit 
are due to its immaturity. Punishment, or blame, or 
whatever evil consequences, though by believers in the 
popular idea of free will considered unjust because of 
want of freedom, is needed, and if needed, therefore, 
deserved, as a means of correcting the immature and 
imperfect qualities of the yet unripened fruit and pro- 
moting its maturity and perfection. Punishment or 
discipline of whatever kind, or when, or where, or how, 
received, if man is governed directly by motives 
brought to bear upon him, or within him, instead of 
himself choosing the motives which he permits to govern 
him, is but supplying to him the motives that divine 
love and wisdom see that he needs; and so punishment 
and reward, praise and blame, instruction and care, 
should not in either case be withheld by God or man, 
and are not inconsistent with love, or justice, or with 
the perfection of any of the divine attributes. Nor 
should man fear less to offend in one case than in the 
other, since the results are the same whatever theory is 
held concerning human freedom. 

But if it still be asked, why any evil at all, either 
moral or physical, since God is love, we answer that re- 
sults are not obtained even by God himself, except 
through the operation of the law of cause and effect. 
Same causes and conditions produce same effects, 
Equivalent causes and conditions produce equivalent 
effects. Like causes and conditions produce like 
effects. Adequate causes and conditions are always 
necessary to produce a given effect. To illustrate: 
The resultant character, or its equivalent, which free 



86 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

will makes possible, can only be attained through free 
will or its equivalent. The result of a process of 
growth, or its equivalents, cannot be obtained without 
a process of growth, or its equivalent, and this, not be- 
cause of any law of nature which God has instituted 
or might have instituted otherwise, but because of the 
necessity of being which could not be otherwise, but is 
co-eternal with, and inseparably inherent in God him- 
self, and therefore in his creation, like the necessary 
truths of mathematics. 

Although it be conceded that equivalent results 
might have been obtained through other equivalent 
processes, we cannot know that any possible equivalent 
process, by which the result could have been attained, 
would have been superior to the process through which 
it is obtained; but since God is infinitely wise and good, 
we must conclude that the proposed result obtained 
through freedom of the will and the possibility of 
temporary evil incident thereto, is a better result than 
is attainable by any other arrangement equivalent to 
free will. And if we take the other view, we may still 
agree that the result attained through growth and con- 
sequent immaturity and imperfection on its way to per- 
fection, is better than any result attainable by any other 
method. Therefore without denying the exceeding sin- 
fulness of sin, or the bitterness of evil, we must regard 
them as but temporary in God's far-reaching plan, 
though hitherto, and for a long time to come, running 
parallel with human history and interwoven with it, and 
resultant from free will or the imperfection of imma- 
turity, yet justly punishable, but with an everlasting 
purpose for final good; and also that the plan of God 
is consistent with infinite love, justice, power and wis^ 
dom; all God's attributes working harmoniously to- 



DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 8? 

gether, being but phases of, or auxilliary to, the infinite 
love, which is ever working on the wisest and best pos- 
sible plan, to attain the blessed final result — universal 
holiness — and consequently that universal happiness 
which must be inseparably connected therewith. 
Read in Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 12. 



VI. 

THE INTRINSIC WORTH OF MAN, 



BY EVERETT LEVI REXFORD, D. D. 



IT is difficult to state the problem of the intrinsic 
worth of a human being, for the reason that there is 
no uniform or generally recognized standard of values, 
if indeed there be any such standard possible. Values 
are determined by circumstances and the stress of ne- 
cessity. A bird is more valuable than a human being, 
if a swift message is to be borne afar, from the given 
moment of an urgent demand. 

The wings of the carrier pigeon are fleeter than the 
plodding feet of the human. Gold is of more value than 
thought, or love, when a heavy note falls due, or famine 
is wasting the lives of the people. A way steamer is 
more serviceable where the products of the field are 
waiting for transportation at every angle of the river, 
than the ocean vessel that bears a great commerce 
across the lonely seas. Everything has its value in its 
own proper sphere, and even there its greatest value 
when the dominant idea and purpose are most com- 
pletely allied with the essential nature and law of the 
thing itself. The value of a human being is most dis- 



INTRINSIC WORTH OF MAN. 89 

tinctly seen in that estate of life wherein the latent 
powers find competent expression. A life, a civilization, 
a condition, which arrests the action of half our pos- 
sibilities, can never disclose the value of a man. An 
age or country governed by a military genius sees little 
value in a human being beyond the age limits of eigh- 
teen and forty-five years. He is supposed to be a good 
fighter between those dates. Fatiguing campaigns 
are easily accomplished; nature can feed itself then, if 
other food supplies are cut off, and the terrible trade 
of war can be prosecuted with a wild and fierce enthu- 
siasm. Human values under the reign of that spirit are 
all anticipatory prior to active service. A boy is of no 
value as a boy, but only as a prospective soldier, and a 
girl is chiefly valuable as a prospective mother of sol- 
diers. Napoleon, asked by Madam De Stael, Who was 
the greatest woman that ever lived? replied, "The wo- 
man who has borne the most sons." What can be con- 
secrated on the altars of the war-gods, is consecrated 
with befitting rites of savagery, and what cannot be so 
devoted is sacrificed with lesser ceremony ; so only it 
be disposed of quickly. Beyond the fighting age, life 
is an incumbrance and should cease with a rude grace. 

That stage of human existence, whereof a selfish 
personal greed is the chief feature, erects a different 
standard and determines all questions of human worth 
by the number of dollars and cents that can be coined 
from human bone, muscle and nerve The dollar sign 
is stamped upon everything and the altars of Mammon 
rise on every hand. The helpless years of infancy and 
childhood are regarded with an impatience which is 
soothed only by a promise, and not infrequently the 
fulfillment of that promise is demanded all too soon, 
while the growing inactivity of age is looked upon as a 



go UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

useless, robber-draft upon the treasury, with no com- 
pensating considerations. The spectacle of age, linger- 
ing quietly in well-earned repose, challenges no reverence 
or gratitude, but the impatient word is " Move on! 
Move on! and give place to the productive energies," 
rather than the word: "Stay and rest and live and be 
venerated and loved, completing with grace the life of 
toil." 

This is not life. These standards do not measure or 
determine the value of a human being. Neither Mars 
nor Mammon ever understood or comprehended the 
import of a man. They have summoned only his rud- 
est powers to their service and have impoverished even 
these by misdirection. 

It is the calamity of any and all low types of civiliz- 
ation that they never disclose the real and therefore 
great values of human life. Great characters may rise 
above the sunken levels of their day; such characters 
have risen again and again, generally to be scorned and 
rejected and crucified, but it is not to be forgotten that 
in the coronation of the immortals the crown of thorns 
is indispensable. And as between thorns, and gold and 
diamonds, the first proclaim a wider divergence from 
the popular sovereignty of the times, and they are ever 
doomed to wait their golden age, an age not character- 
ized by havoc, or wasting, or violence, through the rav- 
ages of a single and unrelated power of human nature, 
sweeping over all other energies artd laying waste the 
fair and beautiful provinces of this same human 
kingdom, but an age made gracious by the symmetrical 
culture of the entire nature of man, and so disclosing in 
human life the image and the grace of God. 

That alone is the true standard of judgment for 
estimating the intrinsic worth of man, which accords 



INTRINSIC WORTH OF MAN. QI 

value — an inestimable value— to every faculty and 
power found in the original endowment of his nature. 
It is not meant by this that there is an incalculable 
value in every faculty by itself considered, but that 
every power may serve every other power, and so 
reaching ever upward to a fortune that has no limits. 
Man is not a body, possessing a soul, but rather an in- 
finite soul possessing and using for the time, a body. 
He has the intellect, the spirit, mysteriously endowed 
with the power to think, to resolve, to hope, to love, to 
aspire, to remember; the power to suffer, to imagine, to 
worship, to enjoy — these and more are the marvelous 
possibilities of the human being, and together they en- 
able man to take his place in the infinite world which 
the Almighty has created and to "think God's thoughts 
after him." In every faculty of man there abides a 
divine integrity. The infinite God is followed by the 
infinite man, by virtue of that divine gift indicated in 
the sacred word that man was made in the image and 
likeness of God. 

This judgment of the divine value of the entire 
nature of man, I know very well, has not always been 
recognized. The blighting verdict of his worthlessness, 
rather, has long prevailed, even in the high court of 
religion, or rather of theology, but in these later days 
we are recovering by intelligence and appreciation what 
the church and the world lost long ago through ignor- 
ance and the lust of power, and in the place of the 
theologian's decree of human worthlessness, the modern 
genius is entering the decree of infinite value. And 
more than this: where the older theologic policy de- 
stroyed nine-tenths of human nature with the design 
of making a Christian of the remaining fragment, the 
modern genius insists upon the culture and develop- 



92 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS, 

ment of the entire human being in the interest of 
brotherhood and service toward man, and childhood 
and reverence toward God. And when the world shall 
develop a civilization that will recognize and give free 
action to the aggregate nature of man, the kingdom of 
God will dwell among men upon earth. That age will 
have its materialism; men will buy and sell and get 
gain; they will build railroads and ships; they will build 
houses — even palaces. There will be gold and silver, 
and governments, and laws, and parties, but there will 
be brotherhood, and liberty, and grace, and beauty, and 
worship, and love, and a widely diffused intelligence; 
and while there will be a sense of utility, it will be 
found that that utility will not rest upon a physical 
basis altogether, or even mainly on that basis. A 
child will be loved for love's sake, regardless of the 
prospective soldier or the mother of soldiers, and 
equally regardless of the daily wages that it may earn 
in some later day. Age shall be loved and venerated 
and cared for, for the essential benediction that abides 
in all noble age for and by itself alone. A friend shall 
be loved for love's sake, not for the benefits it may 
bestow; and even worship shall be not for the purpose 
of winning Heaven but for the heaven that abides in 
worship itself. 

Beauty shall have its utility; sentiment, noble and 
divine, shall have its utility; manhood and womanhood 
and childhood shall all have their utility, not for what 
they can do but for what they are. Love is better than 
hate as a solitary and unrelated fact of consciousness. 
It is something of divine import that a person can carry 
a great joyous secret in his own heart, even if he shall bear 
it as an undivided treasure. It is so much heart-wealth 
and inspiration, held securely within, it may be, while 



INTRINSIC WORTH OF MAN. 93 

external fortunes might render the days poor and 
burdensome. 

And all this thronging fortune is available to man 
because human nature is what it is in its manifold pos- 
sibilities of relationships and experiences. Here is a 
nature that easily escapes from a withering present, it 
may be, and flies to the remote for its refreshing, and 
as readily brings back from other times, and it may be, 
other worlds, for the illumination of the present, the 
holy fortune, or projects the divinity of a present hour 
into the distant years. It is a denizen of all places and 
times. It dwells in different worlds at once. It is not 
limited to a place and a day. Imperial, all-inclusive, 
all-commanding — this is the nature God has given to 
his child, and when once it is awakened and understood, 
it walks with God in his fields, lives with him and 
thinks with him along all the multitudinous ways of its 
charmed and fascinated life. 

Let me return to tarry a brief moment yet with 
this ambitious conception, first voiced by Kepler, of a 
human being thinking God's thoughts after him. 

That struggle has its history. It commenced in a 
wide-reaching chaos. Man could trace the divine lines 
but a brief way at first. Ignorance covered everything 
with its forbidding pall, and the human understanding 
was baffled again and again. But that unconquerable 
energy has persisted, and slowly the bewildering chaos 
has yielded and given place to a realm of order and 
law, through which the instructed mind moves with an 
ever-increasing assurance. A vast unknown remains, 
but on this hither border of the realm, man has dis- 
covered a rational order of things. He has discovered 
much of the thought which God has incorporated in 
the economy of nature and of life. He has deciphered 



94 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

many a heiroglyphic, and so the mind of man has es- 
tablished itself in the mind of God. 

But to do this, what labor has been requisite! And 
what experiences have been encountered! 

The long unyielding mysteries on the one hand and 
the more stubborn resistance of human prejudice on 
the other! What multitudes of men have gone forth 
into the multitudinous fields, to make inquiry, to return 
often empty-handed, to meet the empty-hearted and 
scoffing ignorance that would not even ask a question, 
but destined to go forth again, and to return with the 
glowing and conquering fact! Into all fields have they 
gone and succeeding in their quest, our physical 
scientists have placed the world of humanity under a 
debt of obligation that cannot be soon discharged. 
They have toiled, and they have grown in their toil, 
rising steadily to an equality with the laws of nature 
and at last triumphing over them and making those 
laws the servants of man. How they have risen along 
the lines of God's thinking! A great discoverer is a 
great thinker after God, and with what sustained vigor 
may such an one bear up against the scorn of the world 
while a divine truth is breaking through the mists that 
have enveloped him, and filling his soul with ecstacy 
while it fills the world with light! 

What men are these who have described to us the 
great world-house in which we dwell, who have given 
us the key that has unlocked it, and told us how to get 
into it; who have disclosed it beauties, its designs, its 
laws, its uses, its economies! 

And what other men have told us of our marvelous 
relations to other worlds, and by what laws they all 
dwell together in God's immensity! And others yet — 
how they have disclosed the philosophies of human 



INTRINSIC WORTH OF MAN. 95 

relations and the philanthropies that can make glad 
the life of man in the beneficent universe. 

Our scientists, our philosophers, our philanthropists, 
our poets, our artists, our religionists — how they 
have all been thinkers of God's thoughts after him! 
Every one of them has brought some thought of the 
Great Spirit, for every fact in nature is a thought of 
God, and every relation is not only a thought, but a 
philosophy and a benevolence. 

The man who first discovered that two separate facts 
in nature were related each to the other, commenced to 
weave that mighty fabric which has shielded and 
mantled the world, while the man who first discovered 
the mutual relations between two human souls wrote 
the first chapter of that mighty religion which is des- 
tined to gather all souls at last into its blessed security. 
Every soul that has studied deeply the import of hu- 
manity from the earliest to the latest day has written 
this prophecy. The first chapter of human history 
commenced with the illusory judgment that man is suf- 
ficient unto himself, and of himself alone, but that same 
chapter ended with an agonizing question concerning 
that judgment. 

The second chapter commenced with the family as 
a multiplied unit, but even that closed with another 
question looking toward a clustering together of fami- 
lies. The tribal conception followed, and then the na- 
tional, requiring long centuries to master the personal 
and smaller preference, but the thought of God has 
slowly emerged, and to-day the most rapidly growing 
connection in the mind of man is that not alone in the 
material universe is there a law of unity pervading all 
things, but in the world of humanity every interest is 
related to every other interest, that everybody is essen- 



96 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

tial to everybody, and that no man can live a broad and 
rich and deep life of mind or heart on his own account. 

Many years ago, in his famous Belfast address, Pro- 
fessor Tyndall used the image of the rough walls and 
projecting timbers of an incomplete structure as evi- 
dences that the building was to be extended. 

There is a rough, unfinished side of every man's life, 
every nation's life, so long as the separate is maintained. 
We may build in our selfishness, build completely as we 
think, but man is too great to be a fragment. Some new 
demand will be made. The pattern of the Lord's house 
drawn in the deep nature of every human being, calls 
for a vast structure. 

Build as completely as we may on separable 
grounds, we are fated to tear down and build greater. 
And all through the history of our kind, the men who 
have seen this transcendent vision and have proclaimed 
it, have kept the world from shrinking, and so losing 
the image and impress of the Infinite. 

I like to think of those historic names identified 
with the expanding portions of the people, as types of 
1 what all may become, if not in the personal scope of 
their lives, then as trusty messengers of their spirit. 

Nor yet alone the men who have set back the limits 
of the old, for the larger life of the new day; but it is 
joyous to recall those who have made life beautiful and 
even passionate with their gift. I like to think of men 
who have caught the shifting images of beauty, and 
rendered them permanent in marble or on canvas. I 
like to think of Beethoven and Mendelssohn as read- 
ing the lovely mysteries that God breathed into the 
vibrant airs about us — the marvelous soul that only 
great souls could interpret. These, too, are our great 
brothers, to dwell with whom, even for a little while, is 



INTRINSIC WORTH OF MAN.. 07 

a perpetual inspiration and delight. How do these all 
increase our sense of the intrinsic worth of man, in that 
their genius reaches out so broadly over the prophetic 
area of God's thought! These follow Him. 

Victor Hugo names Homer, Job, ^Eschylus, Isaiah, 
Ezekiel, Lucretius, Juvenal, Saint John, Saint Paul, 
Tacitus, Dante, Rabelais, Cervantes and Shakespeare, 
and says of them that they define the avenue of the im- 
movable giants of the mind. But how are the mighty 
spaces between these Olympians, so enthroned over the 
world, filled by a more humanized type of mortals who 
come into our life in a more amiable and companion- 
able way — filled even by the royal friends we meet in 
the common ways of life, who bring to us daily a sacred 
sense of good! I would not leave that gigantic group 
as Hugo has left it. I would quickly prefer to substi- 
tute Rabelais and Cervantes with James Martineau and 
Ralph Waldo Emerson — the double crown of nine- 
teenth century thinking. 

But after all statements and comparisons, our inter- 
est in all these imperial souls is in the fact that their 
possibilities grade down to us and our possibilities grade 
up to them. Every human being, marred and broken 
as he is, is a possible member of that royal group. 
Time and the purpose of Heaven still brood over him. 
Humphrey Davy, when asked what his greatest discov- 
ery was, answered quickly, "Michael Faraday." He 
was an unpromising boy, ill-conditioned enough, but 
where God has deposited a thought you may always 
look for marvels. Every street urchin is a possible 
Dante or Saint John, and Emerson has said that the life 
of Jesus is the life of every man, "written large." 

And impelled by this suggestion may I approach 
the summit worth of this human world and claim the 



98 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

Prophet of Nazareth as in the human lists? If we seek 
the highest intrinsic worth of man, shall we not seek it 
in the highest and the divinest? The theologic habit 
has impoverished our humanity by transferring its 
crown to the ranks of deity. Let it not be so. We add 
no glory to Jesus of Nazareth by placing him in those 
ranks. The reverse rather is the result of such a trans- 
fer. The people who think of Jesus as God, generally 
I imagine, believe in a God beside him. But when a 
man is found believing in one infinite being, does he 
add any volume to his sense of Deity by duplicating his 
thought? A man who believes in one supreme and in- 
finite deity may multiply his conception a thousand 
times without increasing its volume. And hence the 
placing of Jesus in the deified list, already full, is virtu- 
ally his annihilation. He adds nothing as such, and is 
so removed from the domain of spiritual forces. The 
doctrine of the trinity is thus seen to be the annihila- 
tion of Jesus, for I repeat, if in the human mind there 
be the conception of one infinite being you can not in- 
crease the volume of divinity by multiplying its forms. 
Infinity is already full, and can not be increased. But 
placing Jesus in the human ranks we add his incalcul- 
able grace and value to the meaning of humanity, and 
thus the thought of him multiplies the worth of this hu- 
man world a thousand fold He is our great brother. 
Our powers reach upward to him along the human as- 
cent and his powers reach down to us on the same di- 
vine and prophetic scale. No stress of a rational theo- 
logic necessity requires his transfer to the ranks of 
deity in any other sense than that in which humanity 
everywhere is a part of deity 

In all great characters we read the larger fulfillment 
of the common prophecies that are written in the nature 



INTRINSIC WORTH OF MAN. 99 

of God's children everywhere. In Jesus of Nazareth 
we see the fulfillment of those august prophesies writ- 
ten in the spiritual nature of mankind Following the 
paths of his ascent we reach the borders of the imper- 
ishable realities, and there in those vast altitudes, 
amidst the fadeless splendors of an unwastinglife, man 
discloses his transcendent worth by lifting to his regal 
brow the radiant crown of his own immortality, 
Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 12, 



VII. 

UNIVERSALISM THE DOCTRINE OF 
THE BIBLE. 



BY ALONZO AMES MINER, D. D., LL. D. 



TO appeal to the Bible in regard to the highest 
things, is to assume that it is a fountain of wis- 
dom, that it speaks with authority, that it is a ground 
cf truth. In thus appealing to it, we make no apology; 
whatever I might say were criticism my business, I 
pass it now The Bible is its own justification. This 
appears, first, from the fact that its tone is one of self- 
reliance. It does not speak hesitatingly. It does not 
waver. Its attitude is not doubtful. It is confident, 
assertive, straightforward. It is like an honest witness 
in a court of justice. His frankness of manner, unhes- 
itating utterances, calmness of spirit, and straightfor- 
wardness in affirmation, carry conviction to both court 
and jury. So the Bible speaks, as was said of Christ, 
as one having authority and not as the scribes. 

The self-justification of the Bible appears, secondly, 
in its undeniable morality. It takes cognizance of sin; 
it recognizes the prevalence of corruption, sometimes 
even of abounding criminality. It rebukes individuals, 



UNIVERSALISM OF THE BIBLE. 101 

people, nations. It never excuses wrong; least of all 
does it justify it. It recognizes it as directly and frankly 
in the chosen people as among the heathen nations 
around them, and in the lives of the men who hold pro- 
minence among them, as among the lowly Wrong do- 
ing, in none of its forms, finds justification or excuse in 
its pages. 

In the third place, the Bible is self-justified by its 
unity of doctrine. The same golden thread of truth 
runs through it from the beginning to the end, mani- 
fest among the early peoples in its utmost simplicity, 
growing in complexity as the ages go on, until it 
reaches in the Christian time the plane of highest 
spirituality. Its sixty-six books, by forty-two or forty- 
three different authors, have a common trend, show- 
ing that these authors do not speak of themselves. A 
common spirit and a common aim, largely unknown to 
themselves, shine through all their utterances. Mis- 
conceptions of that aim, imperfect understandings of 
that drift, have laid the foundation for many an error, 
but, as we shall presently see, on taking up any given 
line of inquiry, we find a uniformity of utterance and a 
concurrent consummation. 

As the different parts of a chronometer, though 
constructed at great distances from each other, yet 
making a perfect instrument, show a common mind 
back of all, so the concurrence of Scripture teaching 
through the centuries, shows the divine mind back of 
and inspiring all. The divinity of that teaching is also 
manifest in its transcending the wisdom of the ages. 

The very first word of the Bible strikes the funda- 
mental note of all the harmonies of the universe. "In 
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." 
No attempt to prove the being of a God; no sugges- 



102 UNIYERSALIST CONGRESS. 

tion of argument in that direction; but a bald statement, 
recognizing the truth intuitive in all souls, and so the 
foundation of all government and all religion. Such a 
God, creator of heaven and earth, could not fail to be 
the governor of what he had created. As there could 
be nothing in such a creation that did not spring from 
His hand, so there are no elements in that creation be- 
yond his touch or control; and in the current govern- 
ment of the world he had made, there could not but be 
manifestations of himself. Conceptions of his good- 
ness, revelations of his wisdom, manifestations of his 
controlling power, penetrating lessons of his whole 
abounding presence could not but result. The nations 
could not but be made aware that they were in his 
hands. 

It is largely to this point that the government of 
God over the chosen people as distinguished from other 
nations, the detailed account of which makes the bulk 
of Old Testament history strongly tended, thus in- 
graining a sense of his being and authority into the 
heart of that people, and largely through them into the 
heart of the nations by whom they were surrounded. 
Thus were the convictions of experience added to the 
revelations of the spirit and the intuitions of the 
heart. 

It is out of this fruitage of the divine government 
that David, who had himself suffered the severest dis- 
cipline for his sins, burst forth in that remarkable ut- 
terance. 

"O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou know- 
est my down-sitting and mine up-rising, thou understandest my 
thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, 
and art acquainted with all my ways . For there is not a word in my 
tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset 



UNIVERSAL1SM OF THE BIBLE. 103 

me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowl- 
edge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain unto it. 
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from 
thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I 
make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings 
of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even 
there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If 
I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be 
light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the 
night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both 
alike to thee." (Ps. cxxxix: 1 — 12.) 

It is thus that the Divine Spirit embosoms all things. 
It is thus that the psalmist in the olden time announced 
the divine immanence, which the Christian world has 
been so slow to learn. Since God is thus immanent in 
all things, be cannot but be efficient in the midst of 
all things. As a good man cannot dwell in the midst of 
affairs, without exerting an influence for good in the 
directing of those affairs, so the God of infinite good- 
ness cannot dwell in, and embosom all his children 
without effectively blessing those children Thus the 
government of God becomes of necessity a revelation. 
The record of that revelation shows first of all, his be- 
ing, then his government, even the character of that 
government, involving the character of the divine gov- 
ernor himself, who is "a rewarder of all those who dili- 
gently seek him." John, in his apocalyptic vision, saw 
in all things the embodiment of the divine pleasure. 
"Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor 
and power; for thou hast created all things, and for 
thy pleasure they are and were created." ( Rev. iv: 11.) 

We learn from the record of his government what is 
his will, what his purpose, what his ordination. That 
record is both history and revelation. If God is thus 
immanent in all things, and if he is thus making a reve- 



104 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

lation of his attributes, surely we may look into these 
records and catch the utterances of his servants touch- 
ing his disposition and pleasure concerning his chil- 
dren. 

From this point of view, we cannot be surprised at 
the continual mention of the divine goodness. It is 
among the most comprehensive forms of biblical state- 
ment. "He is good unto all and his tender mercies are 
over all his works." Without his kindly attention not 
a sparrow can fall to the ground. His parental watch- 
fulness is more constant, more tender, more assured 
than that of a mother for her children. "She may for- 
get, but God never will forget." We cannot be sur- 
prised at the abounding mention of the divine mercy, 
a term often interchangeable with goodness — by no 
means always referring to the forgiveness of sins, but 
often another mode of stating the divine love. We 
cannot be surprised at the wonderfully terse declaration 
of John: "God is love;" nor at the apostolic philosphy 
of spiritual causation, when he says: "We love him, be- 
cause he first loved us" — a love with which we become 
acquainted through his providential care. Nor are these 
terms to be taken in abatement as though they had a 
different signification than they have when used among 
men. Rather they rise into a realm of perfection that 
they never reach in the dealings of man with man. 

Nor jdoes the emphasis properly given to divine 
justice, at all militate against these positions. Justice 
is the noblest of the divine attributes. In a certain 
sense it embraces them all. Having created all things, 
it is just that He should care for all things. Having 
created all necessities, it is but just that he should pro-, 
vide for those necessities. Having selected such means, 
as are most compatible with the nature and welfare of 



UNIVERSALISM OF THE BIBLE. log 

his children, and most compatible with his purpose to 
bring all to obedience, it is but just that they should 
reap the rewards of obedience, and suffer the conse- 
quences of disobedience day by day, like the children 
of an earthly father whose responsibilities are univer- 
sally acknowledged. The child can properly claim 
such care as is fitting to the resources of the parent. 

The perfect harmony of justice with the attributes 
of goodness, mercy and love, will be manifest when 
we consider its nature. The primary claim of justice 
is perfect and universal obedience. "Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all thy mind, 
with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. On 
these two commandments hang all the law and the 
prophets." These commandments fulfilled, perfect 
justice is done. All our affections should go out to 
Him from whom we receive life, breath and all things. 
A like affection is due to our neighbor, who, like our- 
selves, is dependent upon that same infinite goodness. 
This claim of justice lies in the very nature of things. 
It is neither whimsical, nor arbitrary. The universe is 
so constituted. These two great commands obeyed, 
the world is at peace. All things are in equilibrium. 
Justice is universal. 

But if we come short of rendering this perfect 
obedience, justice does not surrender its claim. It pro- 
ceeds to secure its demands. It disciplines the dis- 
obedient, who, in their disobedience, are unjust toward 
either God or man. The aim of the discipline is obe- 
dience. It may take on any measure of severity com- 
patible with that aim. It continues its discipline until 
every soul becomes conscious of its dereliction and 
turns back to the pathways of obedience, rendering 
finally perfect love to God, and love to man as to one's 



106 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

self. This principle has no private or limited applica- 
tion. It is as true in heaven as in earth; in eternity as 
in time. In this perfect justice, we have perfect and 
universal obedience, and in perfect and universal obe- 
dience, perfect and universal salvation. Perfect justice, 
therefore, is universal salvation. 

But suppose, now, that this discipline may finally 
fail of its aim, and that the sinner may wander farther 
and farther from God through vast eternity, accom- 
panied by ever deepening woe, it is clear that justice 
will be defeated. To suppose that it may be satisfied 
with that result, is to suppose that justice can turn a 
somersault and rest in the very opposite of its primary 
demand. When, however, its original claim is secured, 
repentance for sin will have been reached; forgiveness 
will have been received, and mercy, that rejoices against 
judgment, will be at one with justice, rejoicing in the 
blessed fruits of judgment. 

If these positions are well taken, it is plain that 
there ought to shine out all along the pathway of Scrip- 
ture, the promises of God, indicative of his pleasure, 
his will, his purposes and his ordinations. Passing 
some specific prophecies to which we may allude in 
another connection, we call attention to certain general 
utterances The prophet Isaiah, using the figure so 
familiar to the Jews (xxv:6-8), speaks of the moun- 
tain of the Lord's house being established in the top of 
the mountains, in which a feast of fat things shall be 
made to all people, fat things full of marrow, of wines 
on the lees, well refined; in which the face of the cov- 
ering cast over all people shall be destroyed; of the 
swallowing up of death in victory; the wiping away of 
tears from off all faces, and the taking away of the re- 
buke of his people from off all the earth; assuring us 
that the Lord hath spoken it. 



UNIVERSALISM OF THE BIBLE. 10? 

The same prophet, in the beautiful rhetoric of the 
ancients, says: 

" The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; 
and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall 
blossom abundantly, and rejoice, even with joy and singing; the 
glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel 
and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excel- 
lency of our God." (xxxv: 1,2.) 

This rhetoric is resolved by the opening of the eyes 
of the blind; the unstopping of the ears of the deaf; 
the making of the lame to leap as an hart; the tongue 
of the dumb to sing; the parched ground to become a 
pool of water; and the casting up of an highway, the 
way of holiness, in which no lion shall be found or any 
ravenous beast, but in which the ransomed' of the Lord 
shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlast- 
ing joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and 
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 

The divine earnestness often takes on the most em- 
phatic form: 

"Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; 
for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, 
the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not 
return. That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall 
swear, surely shall say in the Lord, have I righteousness and 
strength." (Isa. xlv: 22-24.) 

So specific are God's promises that he designates 
his word as the immediate instrumentality by which 
they shall be accomplished: 

" For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and 
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring 
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the 
eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it 
shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I 
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it." 
(Isa. lv: 10, 11). 



108 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

Christ himself recognizes the same instrumentality: 
" Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
free." (John viii: 12). 

Glancing on to the consummation of the moral work 
which God proposes among his children, the prophet 
Isaiah, says: 

"Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the 
former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye 
glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold I 
create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy " (lxv: 17, 18.) 

Paul says (Gal. iv:26), " The Jerusalem that is above 
is free " In this concurs the testimony of the Revelator: 

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first 
heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no 
more sea. And I (John) saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming 
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for 
her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying: 
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with 
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with 
them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor 
crying x neither shall there be anymore pain; for the former things 
are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne, said: Behold, 
I make all things new. And he said unto me: Write; for these 
words are true and faithful. And he said unto me: It is done. 
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." (Rev. 
xxi 1 — 6.) 

Among these varied and most important utterances, 
some, it will be observed, are direct announcements of 
a common destiny as the fruitage of the divine purpose; 
some include also the uplifting of the civilization of the 
nations and the general improvement of society; and 
all are couched in terms of such universality, all bear 
so broadly on the welfare of man, and all look out into 
the future with such limitless vision and hope as to be 
compatible with nothing short of Universalism itself. 



UNIVERSALISM OF THE BIBLE. 100, 

Let us turn now to another point of view — a new 
and the most important aspect of the question. The 
Bible is given to man for the accomplishment of a moral 
work — not simply to foretell but to secure his salvation. 
The divine agent in the accomplishment of this work is 
our Lord Jesus Christ. We may expect, therefore, to 
find the pulse of God's purpose in Christ throughout all 
the Scriptures. He is, in the divine purpose, a lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world. He was given 
all power in heaven and on earth for the accomplish- 
ment of his mission. Up to this time, the government 
of God which primarily was outward and visible had 
been gradually deepening in its spirituality until Christ, 
the culmination of God's spirit in man, was revealed to 
the world. He thus becomes an object lesson to the 
children of men; as perfect a representation of God 
among men as it is possible to present, hence he is fitly 
termed "the brightness of the Father's glory and the 
express image of his person." Holding this place, it is 
hardly possible that there should not be (1) prophetic 
allusions to him through all the ages; hardly possible 
that these allusions (2) should not correspond in 
breadth and significance to the representations that 
Christ himself makes touching his agency and ultimate 
success; and hardly possible (3) that the commentary 
thereon given us by his holy apostles should not pre- 
sent a like breadth and significance, thus making the 
Bible to be Christo-centric and harmonious. 

What now is presented as the breadth of Christ's 
ministry in the world? In the very beginning we are 
told that the seed of the woman shall bruise the ser- 
pent's head; fatality, destruction of evil. To this cor- 
responds Paul's conception of Christ's ministry: 



110 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

"For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and 
blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through 
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is 
the devil; and deliver them, who through fear of death, were all 
their life-time subject to bondage." (Hebrews ii: 14, 15.) 

The patriarch Jacob prophesied, Moses declares 
(Genesis xlix: 18), that "the sceptre shall not depart 
from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until 
Shiloh come; and unto him shall the obedience of the 
people be." 

This long before Judah existed as a tribe, long be- 
fore Palestine was partitioned among the twelve tribes, 
long before the chosen people were settled in their 
promised land, the spirit of prophecy glanced on to 
the arising of the Prince of Peace, to whom, not the 
chosen people alone, but the people of the earth should 
render obedience. 

So the psalmist, moved to recognize Christ as the 
only begotten Son of God, says: 

"Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inher- 
itance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." 
And again (lxxii: 8 — 11): "He shall have dominion also from sea 
to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that 
dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him, and his enemies 
shall lick the dust. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him; all 
nations shall serve him." (Psalms ii: 7, 8.) 

Isaiah is equally emphatic: 

"Behold my servant when I uphold; "mine elect in whom my 
soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him; he shall bring 
forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor 
cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he 
not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench; he shall 
bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be dis- 
couraged, till he have set judgment in the earth; and the isles 
shall wait for his law." (xlii: 1—4.) 



UNIVERSALISM OF THE BIBLE. Ill 

Into what a blessed condition will mankind thus be 
brought, including the Gentile world and even the isl- 
ands of the sea! In this Daniel agrees: 

"I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of 
Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of 
days, and they brought him near before him. And there was 
given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people, 
nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an 
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his king- 
dom that which shall not be destroyed." (vii: 13, 14.) 

Such are but samples of the inspiring outlook of 
prophecy touching the Messiah to come. Let us now 
turn to the Messiah himself already come. How does 
he regard his mission? Though not strictly pertinent 
to this question, it is useful to note the declaration of 
the angel to Mary in Matthew i: 21: " Thou shalt 
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from 
their sins." Note, his people were sinners. Christ, it 
is said, shall save them from their sins. The church 
has vitiated this promise by its assumption that it is 
not until sinners shall have turned from their ways of 
wickedness unto righteousness that Christ will save 
them. The truth is when they shall have turned from 
sin to righteousness, they will need no salvation. They 
will have been therein already saved. The very essence 
of salvation is the recovery of man from sin unto right- 
eousness; and to this turning unto God, Christ is to 
lead the way. 

How does Christ himself look out upon this field 
of prophecy? It has been said that these are vague 
prophecies; that there may be mistakes in applying 
them all to Christ. Let it be granted. But let it be re- 
membered at the same time that Jewish expectation of 
a coming Messiah had risen to the zenith. That ex- 



112 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

pectation must be accounted for. If the admission of 
prophecy concerning him be denied, that expectation 
is a problem unsolved. Notice, moreover, how Christ 
applies the old Scriptures to himself (Matthew v: 17.) 
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the 
prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." 
Thus he recognizes the reference of the law and the 
prophets in all their breadth and sweep to himself. 
Specifically does he apply Isaiah's prophecies to him- 
self: 

"When in Nazareth, his childhood home, as was his wont, he 
entered into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to 
read, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet 
Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place 
where it was written: The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because 
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent 
me to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the cap- 
tives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them 
that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And 
he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister and sat 
down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue 
were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, 'This day 
is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.' " (Luke iv: 16—21.) 

Nor does Christ hesitate to recognize Moses, whose 
sayings are so widely rejected at the present time. He 
says: 

"Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is 
one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye 
believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. 
But if ye believe not his writing*:, how shall ye believe my words?" 
(John v: 45—47-) 

Alluding to the death he should die, the Master 
says, (John xii; 32): "And I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto me," thus justifying the 
saying of the heavenly host as they appeared with the 



UNIVERSALISM OF THE BIBLE. 113 

angel: "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth 
peace, good will toward men.' 

Most suggestive of all is Christ's comment on his 
work as it drew to a close: 

"These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven 
and said, Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son 
also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, 
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee 
on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to 
do." (John xvii: 1 — 4.) 

Then follows £hat most tender and affectionate 
pleading for oneness of spirit in his disciples, that they 
too may be one who should believe on him through 
their word, that the world might believe that God had 
sent him. From these samples of Christ's own testi- 
mony, will it appear that his own view of the breadth 
of his mission was equivalent to the prophetic view as 
that has come before us. 

It remains for us to inquire how the apostles re- 
garded the efficiency of his ministry. Paul evidently 
saw a glorious liberty for the whole creation: 

"For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willing^ 
but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope; be- 
cause the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage 
of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God." 
(Romans viii: 20, 21.) 

And so entrancing was this divine hope, notwith- 
standing the tribulations through which it should be 
reached, that he could say: 

"In all these things we are more than conquerors, through 
him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor 
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
northings to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 



114 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans viii: 37 — 39.) 

To whatever people he wrote, the same triumphant 
vision inspired him. Thus to the Corinthian church, 
he said: 

"Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the 
kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down 
all rule, and all authority, and power. For he must reign, till he 
hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be 
destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. 
But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest 
that he is excepted which did put all things under him. 
And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the 
Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under 
him, that God may be all in all." (I Corinthians xv: 24 — 28.) 

He adds: 

"The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the 
Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are 
earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear 
the image of the heavenly." (I Corinthians xv: 47, 48.) 

Nor can he withhold the same assurances from the 
Ephesian church: 

"Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, accord- 
ing to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself: that 
in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather to- 
gether in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and 
which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained 
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of 
him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 
That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in 
Christ." (Ephesians 1: 9 — 12.) 

In like manner were gladdened the hearts of the 
saints of Phillippi. Referring to Jesus humbling him- 
self and becoming obedient unto death, even the shame- 
ful death of the cross, he says: 



UNIVERSALISM OF THE BIBLE. 115 

"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him 
a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess 
that Jesus Christ is Lord" (ruler) "to the glory of God the Father." 
(Phillipians ii: 9 — if.) 

To the chosen people, he brought the joy of a new 
and better convenant: 

"Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a 
new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in 
the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the 
land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I 
regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that 
I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the 
Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their 
hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a 
people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and 
every man his brother, saying know the Lord: for all shall know 
me, from the least even unto the greatest. For I will be merci- 
ful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will 
I remember no more." (Hebrews viii: 8-12.) 

The apostle John notes an especial grace in the 
clear view we shall at length have of the Father: 

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet 
appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, 
we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (I John iii: 
2.) 

In his vision from Patmos, his statement of the 
divine fullness becomes still more specific: 

"And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round 
about the throne, and the beasts and the elders: and the number 
of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of 
thousands; saying with a loud voice: Worthy is the lamb that was 
slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in 
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in 
9 



Il6 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying: Blessing and 
honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the lamb for ever and ever." (Rev. v: n — 13.) 

This ascription of thanksgiving and honor by every 
creature unto the lamb shows every creature saved 
through the ministry of the lamb To what greater 
height could the sublimity of Christian hope arise, and 
what more complete assurance of the universality of 
the blessings flowing to mankind through the mission 
of Christ could be given, than is presented in this three- 
fold joint testimony (1) of the prophets of the olden 
time, (2) of Christ in speaking of his own ministry, and 
(3) of the holy apostles in their comments thereon 
No wonder that Paul was enraptured with the grandeur 
of this vision. No wonder that the transcendency of 
divine mercy should lead him to declare: "God hath 
concluded them all (both Jew and Gentile) in unbelief 
that he might have mercy upon all." No wonder that 
he should burst forth in rapturous exclamation: 

" O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge 
of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past 
finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or, who 
hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him and it 
shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through 
him, and to him are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen." 
(Romans xi: 33 — 36.) 

Such is the divine conception and purpose of 
Christ's ministry; toward this end is that ministry pro- 
gressing; in this fulness of redemption shall that min- 
istry be consummated. Either love upon the throne 
and wrath subordinate, when Universalism results, or 
wrath upon the throne and love subordinate, when the 
devil will be supreme. 

Rightly understood, there is nothing in the entire 
Scriptures to conflict herewith. Men talk of law and 



UNIVERSALISM OF THE BIBLE. 117 

sin and penalty. Grave subjects, indeed, and easily 
perverted. We associate the law with Sinai, and with 
thunderings and lightnings; judgments with another 
world, a great white throne, and everlasting fire pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels. But the psalmist 
says: 

"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the 
testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The 
statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the command- 
ment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the 
Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are 
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than 
gold, yea than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the 
honey comb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned; and in 
keeping of them there is great reward." (Psalms xix: 7 — 11.) 

The Saviour says: " For judgment am I come into 
this world;" that is, he comes " to set judgment in the 
earth." Again, he says: " Now is the judgment of this 
world." The woes of great social sins, like the sin of 
slavery in our country, are cumulative; hence often de- 
layed in part, only to burst the more violently upon the 
nation at large 

Through the thousands of years of the government 
of God, of which the older Scriptures contain the 
records, his judgments are visible and temporal, though 
often severe, resulting in the overthrow of individuals, 
peoples and nations; but in no case pursuing them, or 
hinting that they will be pursued, beyond the destruc- 
tion that lands them in the grave. The decisions of 
the court throw light upon the law. 

Dr. Campbell, a Scotch Presbyterian divine, a half 
century ago, affirmed that the Old Testament main- 
tained the most profound silence with regard to the 
state of the dead, their joys or sorrows, their happi- 
ness or misery To-day not a scholar on either side of 



US UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

the Atlantic will deny this. True, in King James's ver- 
sion, the Hebrew word which is translated three times 
pit and 29 times grave, is translated 32 times hell. This 
last, Christians have worked with great diligence. Yet 
the term "hell" as a place of woe is now swept 'from the 
Old Testament, not by the hand of Universalists, but 
by the action of those who professedly still believe in 
a fearful doom for a part of mankind; and the Hebrew 
term is left untranslated, signifying simply the state of 
the dead. There is but a single exception to this state- 
ment. Isaiah portrays the deliverance of Israel from 
the power of Babylon and represents the oppressive 
king as a fallen Lucifer: 

"Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy 
coming-: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of 
the earth." (Isaiah xiv: 9.) 

The retention of the word occuring twice in this 
connection is apologized for on the ground that it can- 
not be understood to mean a place of punishment. 
That the original Hebrew word was not left untrans- 
lated here as elsewhere, is a reproach to the good sense 
of the revisers. Hence, the greatly overworked dec- 
laration of the psalmist (ix: 17.): "The wicked shall 
be turned into hell with all the nations that forget 
God," will be no longer available in support of a doc- 
trine which has always been the reproach of Christen- 
dom. 

The new aspect thus given to the ancient Scriptures 
cannot fail to lead to a more careful scrutiny of the 
New Testament teachings. The whole realm of rhet- 
oric, whether of "wrath," or "fire," or "smoke of their 
torments," or "bottomless pit," or "outer darkness," or 
"undying worm," or "unquenchable fire," must be re- 
solved into its true figurative meaning, expressive of 



UNIVERSALISM OF THE BIBLE. 11$ 

the unrest of sin and the inevitable and inherent woes 
of the trangressor. Even the "undying worm of 
Gehenna," employed by the Saviour himself, must be 
seen to rest on the well-known historic facts connected 
with the valley of the son of Hinnom. That the term 
Gehenna cannot refer to a place of woe in the coming 
world, is shown by the fact that it is not once em- 
ployed in the fourth gospel, nor in the Acts of the 
Apostles, nor in any of the Epistles of Paul, or Peter, 
or John, nor in Revelations, and but once by the 
apostle James, and that in a connection which pre- 
cludes such a meaning: 

"The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue 
among our members that it defileth the whole body, and setteth 
on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." (James 
iii: 6.) 

Were this term so vitally important as much Chris- 
tian teaching would make it, it is impossible to sup- 
pose that it would have been over-looked in this manner. 

Let it not be assumed from this, that the Scriptures 
are silent on the subject of retribution. Everywhere 
they link obedience to blessedness and trangression to 
woe. This connection is immediate and final. Every- 
where the teaching is "great peace have they that love 
thy law and nothing shall offend them." On the other 
hand, "the wicked are like the troubled sea when it 
cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." The 
beatitudes link spiritual good to righteousness; and 
the apostle Paul declares that " tribulation and anguish, 
indignation and wrath is upon every soul of man that 
doeth evil, but glory, honor and peace upon every soul 
that worketh good. w 

Few, if any Scriptures bring us nearer to the spirit- 



120 VN1VERSALIST CONGRESS. 

ual elements of the divine government than does the 
teaching of Solomon: 

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that 
getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than 
the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold. 
She is more precious than rubies; and all the things thou canst 
desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her 
right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are 
ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree 
of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one 
that retaineth her." (Proverbs iii: 13—18.) 

It is not declared that wisdom is simply the best 
thing, better than silver or gold, or precious stones, 
but better than all things else. "All the things thou 
canst desire are not to be compared unto her." In this 
truth is involved the essential of retribution. Wisdom 
is the highest blessing the obedient soul can know. 
Man seeks no reward for its possession; it cannot be 
rewarded; itself is the highest heaven. To miss this 
good is the greatest possible loss. Over against this 
blessed state lies that of the foolish and disobedient — 
as deeply cursed as the wise are greatly blessed. Wis- 
dom, therefore, is the principal thing. No wonder that 
we are exhorted with all our gettings to get wisdom. 

Thus have we seen that the Bible is its own justi- 
fication. It teaches us the divine immanence. As a 
record of God's government, and of the inspiration of 
his servants, it is a revelation of his character, his at- 
tributes, his will, his purpose, his ordinations. In both 
Old Testament and New, there shine out prophecies 
justifying the declaration that God is love; that he is 
good unto all and that his tender mercies are over all 
his works; that through the general record of God's 
government runs the golden thread of God's purpose 
of universal redemption in Christ. The breadth and 



. UNIVERSALISM OF THE BIBLE. 121 

universality (i) of the prophecies concerning him, 
(2) of his own exposition of his ministry, and (3) of 
the apostolic commentary thereon, exhibit a unity of 
doctrine which shows the one divine mind behind all 
the ages. We have seen also that the character of the 
divine government, the proper exposition of the rhetoric 
of retribution, and the inherent and spiritual nature of 
divine rewards and punishments, are perfectly concur- 
rent with the breadth, fulness and glory of Christ's 
success in the ultimate salvation of the whole world. 
Presentation Day, Hall of Washington, Sept. 15, 



VIII. 

INTELLECT, ASPIRATIONS AND SENTI 

MENTS OF MAN 

Imply a Common Destiny of Good. 



BY JOSEPH SMITH DODGE, D. D. 



THE material world is the object upon which the 
intellect of man exercises itself with the most 
certain and fruitful results; and it is therefore the field 
in which we may best begin any study of intellectual 
operations. When the researches of physical science 
were in their infancy, they consisted mainly in ascer- 
taining and grasping the facts of nature; but the hu- 
man mind has long since busied itself with a broader 
survey, trying to enlarge the groups of its knowledge, 
to bring them into relation with each other, and to feel 
after some vast arrangement which shall unite the 
whole physical universe in one. All the great general- 
izations of modern science look in this direction — the 
conservation of force, the evolutionary philosophy, the 
interdependence of all fields of research — so that in 
the back ground of most scientific thinking lurks the 
unacknowledged but growing assumption that the uni- 



INTELLECT, ASPIRATION, SENTIMENT. 123 

verse is one vast organism with no incongruous and no 
superfluous parts. 

The same thing, too, is beginning to present itself 
in the social world, although it is far less advanced. 
Lines of tendency are half discovered running through 
history, which point this way. The rapid changes of 
the last century or two are all toward the removal of 
barriers between races, nations and castes, and with 
each removal those that remain are more clearly seen 
to be doomed; so that governments, laws, social cus- 
toms, industries, art, and a hundred less conspicuous 
elements are fast losing their local peculiarities and 
striving toward common types. It needs no great 
stretch of imagination to foresee the day when a man 
may travel from end to end of the civilized world with 
little sense of change. 

This tendency toward social conformity, therefore, 
like the evident oneness of the natural world, may be 
considered as the necessary order of things which 
seems new to us only because we have had to get rid 
of obstacles that prevented our seeing it. And what 
makes this pertinent to our argument is that it all 
comes about without any shock to the mind or any 
sense of abruptness. Rather, the mind accepts it as 
part of the natural order of things; and the new facul- 
ties or customs so rapidly grow familiar that one is sur- 
prised at remembering how recent is the change. 

But the easy acceptance of these discoveries argues 
that the mind of man was already fitted to receive 
them; and many facts illustrate this view. For in- 
stance, it requires minds of the highest order to dis- 
cover the great laws of nature or of social life, but 
when they are discovered and investigated so that the 
greater minds understand them, then the process be- 



124 VNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

gins and goes rapidly forward of teaching these results 
to the general mind. And so rapidly do those receive 
who could never have discovered, that it is a common- 
place to observe how the school boy of today is far 
more learned than his grandfather was in his prime. 
Nor is this only true of minds which may be thought 
to have inherited an aptitude for such studies. On the 
contrary, young men of many races which have never 
entered upon these paths of knowledge, acquire with 
ease the teachings of science, and are entirely at home 
in the new views. 

Now these considerations sufficiently show two 
things: first, a correspondence between the knowing 
mind and the universe as an object of knowledge; and 
secondly, an innate tendency of the mind to seek uni- 
versal harmony among the objects of its study, with an 
intrinsic fitness in those objects to gratify more and 
more this tendency of the mind. 

If this paper were of unlimited extent, it would be 
next in order to set forth the argument for believing 
that a supreme intelligence has created and governs 
both man and his surroundings. But this, in the present 
instance, may be taken for granted, and we have only 
to translate the terms of general observation into those 
of Christian belief. We have, therefore, the spectacle 
of God's children in God's world, each created with a 
perfect aptitude for the other. Confining ourselves for 
the present to the intellect of man, we find it from the 
first capable of investigating the phenomena which 
surround it, while these phenomena are obviously de- 
signed to catch the attention and reward the efforts of 
the mind. 

Next, we see the mind, strengthened by this exer- 
cise, endeavoring to penetrate below the surface of 



INTELLECT, ASPIRATION, SENTIMENT. 125 

things and find under it law and meaning, while again 
the creation of God responds with new depth and an- 
swering voices. Finally we see how the mind, height- 
ened and broadened by its vast acquisitions, impatient 
of scattered details and fragmentary facts, puts forth 
its energy of conception and strives to grasp all things 
as one; and again we see that the world, so long mis- 
understood, at last grows luminous with the surmise, if 
not yet with the demonstration, that God has placed 
man in a cosmos of universal harmony and order. 

Now it is true that science does not yet fully prove 
this of the natural, and still less of the social world. 
But it is equally true that the human intellect has caught 
the splendor of such a coming revelation, and will 
not rest content till all is plain. No scheme of God's 
creation which presupposes a permanent discord, which 
offers as its best in any field of study mere aggregate 
parts, a mass without a harmony, can any longer sat- 
isfy the human mind. Looking at God's work objec- 
tively, without thought of any concern beyond that 
of a spectator, we are driven by the constitution of 
our minds, and by their advanced development, to 
believe in and look for the final consummation. 

II. The mere spectator's view, however, does not 
long satisfy a man. There are inward impulses which 
assure him that he has more than the interest of an on- 
looker, and drive him to take a voluntary part in the 
great process. He has aspirations; that is, he sees 
himself imperfect, he finds his adjustment to his sur- 
roundings unsatisfactory, he is sure that both for himself 
and for his position improvement is possible; and he 
cannot rest till he has begun to strive for better things 
But the curious experience follows that these aspir- 
ations are insatiable. We may confine ourselves for 



126 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

the moment to that dissatisfaction with one's own 
character which includes many phases, from a pro- 
found sense of sin to an assured expectation of spirit- 
ual growth. No matter at what stage, or on what side 
we investigate, every soul not sunk in lethargy has some 
ideal of better spiritual things for which it longs. To 
attain one aim is only to find another waiting; for, 
modest as the first hope may be, it is only the germ of 
other developments in endless sequence. 

Each of us can verify this from his own experience, 
but one must not imagine that it is different with 
others. Indeed, the labors of missionaries among sav- 
age races, and of workers in the slums at home, have 
given us of later years abundant data for believing that 
all men, however uncultivated, and however base, re- 
tain as part of their native constitution, an inextinguish- 
able capacity of desiring better things. So that intel- 
ligent Christians no longer recognize any class or any 
condition of men as unfit for or unable to respond to 
the Gospel appeal; while all are agreed that the first 
requisite for enlightenment or reformation is to awaken 
this dormant aspiration and stimulate it with the di- 
vine assurance that "whosoever will may come." 

But another familiar fact must be joined with this. 
No soul aspires after true excellence selfishly. As 
surely as the desire is really awakened and as soon as 
a little progress has demonstrated what may be 
achieved, [comes the twin desire to impart to others. 
This is part of the social instinct. It is true of every 
advance which man feels to be a real gain for his 
higher nature, whether it relates to health or learning, 
to invention, art, or morals; and it is strongest of all 
in the domain of spiritual life. We may therefore lay 
it down as a general law that all men are capable of, 



INTELLECT, ASPIRATION, SENTIMENT. 127 

and most men experience a desire for, the improvement 
first of themselves, and then of their neighbors. The 
facts of life do not permit us to think of any point of 
spiritual rest and final contentment. Each new attain- 
ment of excellence brings new ideals for oneself and 
new eagerness to spread the divine kingdom. 

Theological systems, it is true, have fabled a ten- 
dency to the segregation of the wicked and the good, 
each preferring to herd with his kind, or even an ulti- 
mate state of blessed virtue which shall look with com- 
placency on the lost condition of the wicked. But all 
this is closet speculation. When the appeal is made 
to the facts of life it is found that virtue yearns to- 
wards the evil, and will rather forego the companion- 
ship of its like than cease to seek the lost; while the 
perfection of human excellence, the Son of God, came 
and abides among us that he might be the sinner's 
friend. 

And experience shows that these aspirations accom- 
plish their purpose. Of course many desires fail, many 
reforms relapse; the cry of suffering souls testifies to 
much sin against both light and expectation. But the 
fact of innumerable successes remains; and the best 
evidence is that those who know most of this field of 
endeavor are the last to be discouraged. No depth 
of sin or wretchedness is found which was not fully 
equalled by the gulf out of which some soul has come 
triumphant. The closet theologians picture a hope- 
less lost state of sin; but the helpers of men from Christ 
till now have refused to believe them, have sought and 
saved the lost. 

There is therefore a vital and permanent correspond- 
ence between the aspirations of good men and the 
possibilities with which God has endowed the race; so 



128 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

that with this view it is impossible to conceive any 
other outcome of the world's unceasing struggle than 
that the desires of the best and the wisest shall be 
fulfilled. In proportion as we are conformed to the 
image of the Lord the promise made to him grows pre- 
cious and sure to us: "He shall see of the travail of his 
soul and shall be satisfied." 

III. It has been been very much the custom to 
leave sentiment out of the account in theological dis- 
cussions, as a disturbing element where reason should 
rule. And yet it has never been shown that reason is 
more qualified than sentiment to discover the truth 
about human relations. In fact, sentiment dominates a 
large part of all lives. If all the souls which cold 
reason has won from sin to righteousness, or all the deeds 
well done at the call of reason, should be confronted 
with the trophies of sentiment on the same fields, 
reason's boast would be small, indeed. It may, in fact, 
be doubted whether the human race could be held back 
from headlong ruin if there were no restraining power 
but reason. On the other hand the bonds and the 
effects of sentiment are endless. Most of the true hero- 
ism and a great part of the common-place virtues of 
human life are due to sentiment which attaches defin- 
itely to some person or group, of persons; so that we 
may confidently say the extinction of such affection 
would have made the good deeds impossible. And 
when we consider that this affection is generally recip- 
rocated, so that the person who seems to inspire to 
virtue may in turn receive a similar inspiration from 
the other, and that each of the pair has other similar 
relations, there comes into view a network of sym- 
pathies which has no bounds but those of the human 
race, 



INTELLECT, ASPIRATION, SENTIMENT. 1 29 

But it is not only as an incentive to worthy acts that 
affection exalts the man. The fact of loving and being 
loved ennobles the soul. It surrounds one with an 
atmosphere especially favorable to high development. 
Of this no possible doubt can exist. The experience 
of family life, of friendship, of Christian fellowship, and 
also the experience of reformers and teachers, all make 
certain the claim that worthy affection powerfully up- 
lifts the soul. 

Now all this puts an end to any thought of individ- 
ual destiny as complete in itself. To cut off this far- 
reaching and powerful source of virtue would be to 
reverse the divine plan; it would throw us back upon 
the law which, addressed to each alone, was long ago 
proved "weak through the flesh," and rob us of the 
Gospel's victory through the constraining love of Christ 
and the fellowship of brethren. No man is or ever 
was strong enough to prosecute the Christian career 
without the helping environment of divine and human 
love. He needs, absolutely needs, both to give and to 
receive. It is the predestined respiration of the soul 
in the atmosphere of love, without which it cannot live. 
And since, as we have seen, the network of mutual 
sympathy includes every person, none can be sundered 
from the rest without leaving a vacant place and grieved 
hearts. At the farthest, if there be a soul who loves 
none and whom none of the sons of men love, yet for 
him, too, Christ died, and over him the Father yearns. 
In this view, the destinies of the race can no more be 
separated than a single man can be divided between 
heaven and hell. 

Now, the church has largely lost this idea because 
she has neglected sentiment in her reasonings, and has 
held to logic though the heart-strings snapped. But 



130 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

when sentiment is restored to that legitimate authority 
which the experience of life accords it, when the 
doctrines of the Gospel are seen to be revealed anew in 
every day's experience, then it will be understood that 
the bond which unites in one the present fortunes and 
the final destiny of men, is love. 

A paper so short as this cannot aim to do more than 
suggest trains of thought which it has not space fully to 
prosecute. The intellect, the aspirations, and the senti- 
ments do not constitute, it is true, but they may fairly 
represent, the spiritual constitution of men. And 
since we have found that each increasingly demands 
some scheme of human well-being which shall include 
the entire race, while each is met by a corresponding 
capacity of human development, we may conclude that 
the divine wisdom which created and rules mankind has 
in this way made known the end towards which it 
works — the universal blessedness of man. 

Read in Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 12. 



IX. 

UNIVERSALISM THE DOCTRINE OF 
NATURE. 



BY EDWIN CHAPIN SWEETSER, D. D. 



Theme: "Science indicates the unity of forces; hence the unity of Final 
Cause; manifested in the progress of knowledge; industrial, commercial and in- 
ternational relationships also indicate the brotherhood of man." 

THAT Universalism is the doctrine of nature could 
never before have been maintained with so much 
reason as now ; for never before were the facts of nature so 
extensively known or so well understood. Indeed, na- 
ture has been mostly a sealed book until recently. Only 
within the present century have even the most learned 
men attained to such a knowledge of it as to enable 
them to tell what its teachings are in regard to man's 
relative place in the universe, his origin, tendencies, 
and ultimate destiny. Until the time of Copernicus, 
not only was the earth regarded as the center of the 
universe, but there was a prevalent belief that nature 
was inhabited by discordant forces, many of which were 
hostile to the welfare of man. By most of the ancients, 
what we call the forces of nature were either supposed 
to be personal spirits, or to be under the control of a 
10 



132 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

variety of such spirits, some good and some bad, who 
operated accordingly. In the imagination of mankind 
the universe was parceled out among gods many and 
lords many, some greater and some less, some kindly 
disposed and some unkindly, and all subject to varia- 
tions of mood and of action, so that nothing could be 
predicted of them with very much certainty. Some of 
them were thought to have their abode in the sky, some 
in the air, some in the earth, and some in a vast under- 
ground place of the dead; and each of them was sup- 
posed to have something to do, according to his own 
disposition and ability, in producing the diverse phe- 
nomena of nature. 

Even among Christian nations, though natural forces 
were not deified, nor were polytheistic ideas entertained, 
yet until a very modern period there was a general be- 
lief that an evil power, as well as a good one, was oper- 
ative in nature. Storms, tornadoes, floods and earth- 
quakes were attributed sometimes to the wrath of God, 
and sometimes to the malice of the devil, who was sup- 
posed to control legions of subordinate devils and to 
have a power over nature second only to that of God, 
against whom he was supposed to be constantly schem- 
ing and contending for possession of the souls of man- 
kind. 

Such conceptions were inevitable as long as people 
had no means of knowing what nature's forces really 
are, or how they are related to one another, and to the 
life of mankind. They interpreted its phenomena in a 
childish way because they had no other way. Even yet 
such conceptions are not fully abolished. There are 
still many people, even in the most civilized countries, 
who assume that in nature there is a devilish element 
which is contrary to God's law and to the welfare of 



UNIVERSALISM AND NATURE. 1 33 

men. It is not to be wondered at that, with such a be- 
lief, they should hold that the destiny of a part of man- 
kind will be determined by the power which that ele- 
ment indicates. Belief in a divided destiny for the hu- 
man race is a logical concomitant of that theory of na- 
ture which fills it with discordant powers, or which re- 
gards it as a field of war between two great super- 
natural powers, one good and one evil, each striving to 
possess mankind. 

But within the last century, and especially within 
the last half century, there has been much running to 
and fro, and knowledge of nature has been so greatly 
increased, that such conceptions in regard to it are no 
longer tenable. The great progress of scientific studies 
has made it impossible for well-educated people to en- 
tertain the old cosmography, or the old belief in regard 
to nature's forces. In this respect it may be truly said 
that old things have passed away and all things have 
become new. People of the present day do not live in 
the universe of Homer or of Dante. We have found 
out that we live in a much larger domain than the 
people of former ages dreamed of, and that this world, 
though much smaller in comparison with the rest of 
the universe, is much more orderly and better governed 
than they supposed it to be. 

Modern science has turned its search-lights in every 
direction, and has revealed to us a new heaven and a 
new earth wherein there is omnipresent law, and in 
which the human race has a very different standing 
from that which was attributed to it under the old im- 
aginary arrangement of things. It has swept the sky 
with its telescopes, and has shown us that this world, 
instead of being the central body and principal part of 
the universe, is only a small part of the solar system, 



134 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

which itself is but a part of a larger system and of a 
system of systems of infinite magnitude and inconceiv- 
able complexity, all of which is regulated in accordance 
with a plan whose harmoniousness and beauty are won- 
derful and admirable beyond all compare. 

It has illuminated the dark places upon the earth's 
surface, and has shown us that, instead of being the 
hiding places of demons, fairies, sprites and witches, 
they are the abode of the same beneficent forces which 
prevail in the smiling valley, the field, and the garden. 
It has shown us the real causes of tornadoes and earth- 
quakes and all such phenomena, tracing them not to 
any sort of malevolent influence, but to a balancing of 
nature's forces whereby "all nature's difference keeps 
all nature's peace," And, investigating the earth's in- 
terior, it has found there no Avernus, no Inferno, no 
place of torment, no abode of rebellious angels or of 
departed souls of wicked men, but, contrariwise, a suc- 
cession of strata containing fossil remains which indi- 
cate very plainly that in the long process of creation, 
covering thousands of ages, there has been a steady pro- 
gress from the lowest forms of organic life to higher 
and still higher forms, all tending towards and resulting 
in the existence of the human race, for whose coming 
and perpetuation and further development all things 
else, from the very beginning, are seen to have been 
preparatory. 

Indeed, it is hardly too much to say that all things 
else in the solar system are subordinate to the exist- 
ence and welfare of man. For, small though it is, in com- 
parison with the sun, or even in comparison with some of 
the planets, this earth is probably the only part of the 
solar system in which organic life exists — the only part, 
at all events, in which human beings live or could live. 



UNIVERSALISM AND NATURE. l%$ 

Such are the conditions on which man's life depends, 
as to temperature and sustenance, that only in this par- 
ticular part of the visible universe could he have come 
into existence, since only here, at just this distance 
from the sun, are the necessary conditions found. Here, 
on this earth, after countless ages of preparation, dur- 
ing which the solar system was evolved out of chaos, 
organic life was introduced; and after countless ages 
more man appeared, the crowning work, the high- 
est creature, for whom all else had been preliminary. 

Such is the teaching of modern science; such the 
view of nature and of man's relation thereto to which 
we have been brought by the progress of knowledge. 
It shows us that man lives in a vast orderly universe, 
and that he is related to the realm of nature as a choice 
fruit to the garden from whose long cultivation it has 
finally resulted. As Humboldt says: "The finest fruit 
earth holds up to its maker is a man." And this is true 
of man as man, not merely of the best of men. Human 
nature, wherever found, exhibits the essential qualities 
of that marvelous fruitage. That there is a great differ- 
ence between some men and others is too evident to be 
denied; but "a man's a man for a' that," and every 
man is a possessor, in common with every other man, 
of a nature which is far superior to anything else which 
nature shows, and for the production of which the vari- 
ous stages of creation were evidently preparatory — 
whether or not we accept the Darwinian theory. In 
regard to the rank of man as man, with reference to 
the remainder of creation, modern science leaves no 
room tor doubt. It places him at the summit. It ex- 
hibits him as the principal object for whose production 
nature's processes have been carried on since nature 
itself began to be — man, " the heir of all the ages, in the 
foremost files of time." 



136 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

Moreover, to anyone who accepts the evidence of 
intelligent design in nature, science leaves no room for 
doubt that its processes are carried on by a single mind 
with a single purpose. For not only does it give no 
confirmation to the theory that evil spirits have control 
of some of nature's forces and are the cause of a par.t 
of its phenomena, but it finds that in reality there is 
only one force in the universe, all apparently different 
forces being different phases of that one force, resolvable 
into one another under certain circumstances. Light, 
heat, motion, electricity, magnetism and chemical affin- 
ity — all the forces of nature of which we have any knowl- 
edge — are now known to be mutually convertible and 
to represent in different forms one constant, indestructi- 
ble energy which can be neither increased nor dimin- 
ished in anywise. 

Among all of the wonderful discoveries which 
science has made in modern times there is none more 
profound than that of the correlation and conservation 
of forces, and none more far-reaching in what it im- 
plies with reference to the destiny of mankind. For it 
negatives the supposition that there are two or more 
great spiritual powers dividing the dominion of the 
universe between them. It excludes all polytheistic or 
dualistic conceptions of the origin and government of 
the existing order of things. It allows but one creator, 
one ruler, one governor, one source of all energy, one 
great first cause, of whom and through whom and to 
whom are all things. 

What, then, is it reasonable to conclude from these 
premises? Since a scientific study of nature shows us 
that there is only one ultimate force in the universe, 
which under various manifestations was working for 
countless ages to prepare the way for man's advent, 



Vniversalism and nature. 13 

and is still working to maintain his existence and wel- 
fare, what is likely to be the outcome so far as man is 
concerned? What can we reasonably forecast as the 
issue of that "one increasing purpose which through 
the ages runs?" Does not unity of force imply unity of 
final cause? Does not the fact that the author of that 
force made such vast and long-continued and wonder- 
ful preparation for the existence of mankind point 
plainly to his intention to carry on the great work till 
the race, thus created, shall have come to perfection? 
Is it reasonable to suppose that he has created man- 
kind, his crowning work of all the ages, either to annihi- 
late them, or to keep any of them in a state of imper- 
fection forever, or to make the existence of any of 
them an everlasting evil to them? Has God done all 
this work for naught? Has he taken so much time 
and such infinite pains to produce a race of human be- 
ings with an intellectual and moral nature which is 
evidently capable of far greater development, and will 
he not complete the project? Shall he "bring to the 
birth and not cause to bring forth?" Or shall he, after 
so much and so wise preparation, bring forth as the 
final result of it all a discordant humanity, a race 
divided against itself, part saved and part lost, part 
good and part evil, part happy in heaven and part 
wretched in hell? 

Nature contains no intimation of such a dreadful 
fiasco. Its indications all point to one destiny for 
mankind — a glorious destiny, in which every man shall 
be perfect. It is like a vast workshop in which various 
forces are employed to produce a certain kind of 
article, of which multitudes may there be seen in differ- 
ent stages of construction. Going into such a factory, 
an ignorant man might take it to be a place of confu- 



133 UNIVERSALIS T CONGRESS. 

sion. Its complicated machinery, its diverse motions, 
its jarring sounds, and its unfinished materials might 
seem to him to indicate that there was no unity of pur- 
pose there, and that nothing perfect could be produced 
there. But to an intelligent observer such a factory 
tells a very different story. To him it speaks of one 
master mind directing all of its complex forces, and 
directing them all to a uniform end. In the midst of 
its complexity, he sees a single, steadfast purpose to 
produce a definite number of finished articles, each one 
like a perfect model, which is the standard toward 
which all of its energy is directed. He cannot believe 
that the master mind, which created the factory and 
which directs all of its movements, is intent on produc- 
ing unfinished articles, or articles which are meant to 
be thrown away or destroyed either before or after 
their completion. Reason forbids him to entertain 
such a theory. Everything in the factory, from the 
firmly laid foundation walls to the model in the model 
room, indicates an intention on the part of the control- 
ling mind to produce permanent copies of the finished 
article, to be put to an appropriate use in the world 
He is forced to believe that the unfinished articles 
which he sees in the place are intended to be carried on 
to perfection, and that finally all of them will conform 
to the model, to a perfect idea in the mind of him who 
designed them. 

Even so in the realm of nature; he who rightly reads 
its indications, in the light which science throws upon 
them, can draw no conclusion other than this — that all 
men, however imperfect at present, are divinely in- 
tended for perfection, and that sometime they will be 
conformed to the image of that perfect man, the Son 
of God, in whom, as the Scripture says, all things con- 



UNIVERSALISM AND NATURE. 1 39 

sist — hold together, that is, and find their meaning. 
From the primal star dust out of which the worlds 
were made, through every stage of the incalculably 
long process by which the earth attained its present 
form and humanity came to be what it now is, every- 
thing, if taken with due regard to its connections, points 
to a uniformly glorious estate for mankind, indicating 
that God's purpose is to make every human being 
Christ-like. Omar Khayyam, the astronomer-poet of 
Persia, has expressed this idea in the parable of the 
potter's vessels which he has introduced into his great 
poem, the Rubaiyat. The vessels in a potter's house 
are represented as conversing with one another with 
reference to their probable destiny. 

"Said one among them— 'Surely not in vain 
My substance of the common earth was ta'en 
And to this figure moulded, to be broke, 
Or trampled back to shapeless earth again.' 

"Then said a second— 'Ne'er a peevish boy 
Would break the cup from which he drank in joy: 
And he that with his hand the vessel made 
Will surely not in after wrath destroy.' 

"'Why', said another— 'Some there are who tell 
Of one who threatens he will toss to hell 
The luckless pots he marred in making— Pish! 
He's a good fellow, and 'twill all be well'." 

In different phrase, and with greater reverence, 
Isaiah expressed the same view of the matter when he 
wrote: "Thus saith the Lord, the holy one of Israel 
and his maker: Ask me of the things that are to come; 
concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my 
hands, command ye me. I have made the earth and 
created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched 
out the heavens and. all their host have I commanded. 
There is no God else beside me. Look unto me and 
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, 



140 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

and there is none else. By myself have I sworn, the 
word is gone forth from my mouth in righteousness, 
and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, 
every tongue shall swear. Only in the Lord, shall one 
say unto me, is righteousness and strength; even to him 
shall men come, and all they that were incensed 
against him shall be ashamed." Never before, as in 
these days, could the full force of this language be 
understood by mankind. Never before could they see 
in nature such evidences of God's unity and of his pur- 
pose that all men shall be saved. Nature, in the light 
of modern science, teaches by irresistible implication, 
in a most wonderful manner and with an astonishing 
wealth of illustration, what religious inspiration teaches 
— that there is but one fount of energy in all the vast 
universe, one Supreme Being who stretched out the 
heavens, and made the earth, and created man upon it 
as the chief work of his hands; and that his purpose 
regarding every man is to continue his development 
unto a state of perfection, of righteousness and peace 
and joy, in which all alike shall glorify his wisdom, 
justice, power and love. 

Moreover, not only does science thus indicate 
that all mankind will finally attain to a condition of 
perfectness, but industrial, commercial, and interna- 
tional relationships are making it clearer, year by year, 
that all mankind form one great body, one brotherhood 
of human souls, with mutual duties and common inter- 
ests so interwoven that no man's destiny can be separ- 
ated entirely from that of the rest of the race. 

In former times, when each tribe and nation lived 
by itself, having but little intercourse with others — 
when means of communication were but scanty be- 
tween widely distant parts of the earth, and the arts 



UNIVERSALISM AND NATURE. I4f 

and sciences of the present age had not even been 
dreamed of — it was impossible that men should realize, 
as they are now rapidly coming to, their oneness of na- 
ture, their community of interests, and their depend- 
ence upon one another for the welfare of all. Then, in 
their ignorance, the people of different tribes and na- 
tions supposed that they sprang from entirely different 
origins, and that their interests were contradictory. 
They assumed that their proper relation to one another 
was either one of hostility or of well-guarded neutral- 
ity. The same Latin word, hostis, meant a foreigner 
and an enemy. Warfare between nations was the gen- 
eral rule, and the greatest fighters were the men who 
received the most praise. There is still far too much of 
that mistaken belief and injurious feeling. But steadily 
and rapidly it is passing away Mankind, the world 
over, are being taught by experience the great truth 
which the Christian religion affirms, that all men be- 
long to one stock and one family, and are members one 
of another, being bound to one another, not only by a 
common nature which all alike receive from God, but 
by indissoluble ties of a social and sympathetic order 
which are steadily becoming stronger among all classes 
of people, and which must continue to do so until the 
whole vast human body shall be animated by one spirit, 
so that if one member suffer all the members will suf- 
fer with it, and no man can be fully saved unless all 
other men are saved. 

The solidarity of mankind is a fact which is becom- 
ing increasingly evident. Science is reaffirming the 
Biblical truth that all men have a common origin, and 
the progress of events is proving that they are tending 
towards a common destiny. 

What an object lesson in that respect the World's 



142 UNIYERSALIST CONGRESS. 

Columbian Exposition offers! Here we have people 
from all parts of the world, of diverse tongues 
and diverse races, bringing with them their diverse 
products — yet in all of this complexity what 
order and unity! What fraternity of interests, 
what interdependence, what mutual helpfulness! 
From east and west and north and south, men 
whose ancestors scarcely knew of one another's exist- 
ence, or who regarded one another with distrust and 
aversion, are here as one family, each bringing some- 
thing which contributes to the common welfare, and 
each having a language which, however strange it may 
sound to the ears of the others, is translatable into that 
of any one of the others, representing the same 
thoughts and affections and purposes. Underneath all 
the differences which are here represented there is a 
deeper and more abiding unity, a oneness of nature, a 
community of interests, in which each person partici- 
pates and to the wholeness of which every person is 
necessary. 

So in the great outlying world which the Exposi- 
tion epitomizes. Each nation, each class, each individ- 
ual contributes something to humanity which affects 
favorably or unfavorably the welfare of all. There is 
scarcely a house in any civilized country where pro- 
ducts of all parts of the world are not found; and 
the more civilized the race becomes, the more de- 
pendent each member is, not only upon other members, 
but upon an ever enlarging number of them, for his own 
comfort and progress. The savage provides for his 
own wants, almost. if not entirely without any assist- 
ance. He makes his own bow and arrow, his own hut, 
his own garments, and kills and cooks his own food. 
But the civilized man of modern times cannot even be 



UNIVERSALISM AND NATURE. 143 

comfortable without the co-operation of vast numbers 
of men in different parts of the world. Without their 
assistance he cannot carry on his industrial enterprises, 
nor can he even dine as he desires to without having on 
his table the results of their labor. Co-operation is be- 
coming more and more general, and more and more a 
necessity. Let any class in society become hostile or 
disaffected towards the rest of society, or even fail to 
do its part in the work of society, and the results are 
more and more disastrous. The rest of society, for the 
protection of its own interests, must seek to rectify the 
condition of that which is inharmonious and produc- 
tive of evil. Otherwise the evil spreads and involves 
all in its deplorable consequences sooner or later Like 
the cholera, which, originating in some obscure corner 
of the earth among the most degraded classes, is soon 
carried abroad from man to man, and from land to 
land, until none, however high, are entirely safe from 
it, so every kind of evil which exists among men has a 
tendency to spread its malevolent influence, and unless 
it is exterminated it will involve the whole race more 
or less in its miseries. 

The more civilized mankind become, the more ac- 
tively and noticeably this principle operates. Civiliza- 
tion carries evils as well as blessings in its train. As 
cities grow in wealth and numbers, in the cultivation of 
the arts and sciences, and in that complexity of organ- 
ization which characterizes municipalities nowadays, 
their slums become more of a menace to them. As 
the whole world advances in respect to those matters 
by which man's welfare is promoted, it becomes less 
and less possible for any part of society to cut itself off 
from the rest of society, or to separate its own inter- 
ests, As the eye of a man's body cannot say to the ear, 



144 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

I have no need of thee, nor the head to the feet I have 
no need of you, so in the great body of humanity of 
which all men are members, no person, however supe- 
rior to some others in intelligence or in goodness, can 
divorce himself from them or prevent his own condi- 
tion from being affected by theirs. 

So we find that as civilization advances, and man- 
kind are drawn closer to one another in commercial, 
industrial and international relationships, there is a cor- 
responding increase of sympathy and of charitable, re- 
formatory, and missionary work on the part of the more 
favored classes towards those who are more ignorant 
and degraded and sinful. There is a growing recogni- 
tion, in practical ways, of the fact that humanity is one 
body, and that salvation is to be secured by any por- 
tion thereof not by a policy of exclusiveness and self- 
ishness, but by one of unselfishness and mutual help- 
fulness. It is coming to be felt with increasing inten- 
sity that the more ignorant and sinful any portion of 
the race may be, the more need there is for all con- 
cerned that it should be helped and uplifted and re- 
deemed from its wretchedness and made to minister to 
the common welfare, lest it work more and more to 
the common injury. Slum life must not be permitted. 
Barbarism must be banished. Ignorance must be sup- 
planted. Vice of all descriptions must be driven out 
of existence. Social science necessitates this Christian 
conclusion; and none the less for mankind in the fu- 
ture life than in the life that now is; none the less in 
the spirit world than here upon earth — rather the more 
so, because there the process of development will have 
carried mankind still further forward in respect to com- 
plexity of organization, interdependence of members, 
and mutual influence. 



UNIVERSALISM AND NATURE. 14$ 

It is impossible, in view of the solidarity of man- 
kind, and the great truths which are taught by social 
science, that one part of the human race should be per- 
fectly saved and everlastingly happy and that another 
part should be irremediably lost and forever unhappy 
— as impossible as that a house should stand while di- 
vided against itself, or that a person's head should be 
happy while some of his other members are being sub- 
jected to unspeakable torment. The inhabitants of 
heaven cannot live selfishly. They could not, if they 
would, cut off their own fortune from that of the rest 
of mankind. All must eventually be saved if any are 
to be completely saved. All must become partakers 
of a universal condition of holiness and happiness, 
or none can escape from some consciousness of loss 
and some degree of unhappiness. There can be no 
everlasting slums, no state of endless sin and woe, if 
there is to be anywhere a perfect heaven for any of the 
sons of men. The solidarity of mankind forbids such 
a division. Social science negatives it, and requires 
that all men shall at last come to perfection. 

Equally, then, by those teachings of nature which 
indicate that, from the beginning, the Author of the hu- 
man race has designed its ultimate perfection, and by 
those which indicate the unity which binds its mem- 
bers together, we are led to the conclusion that it can 
have but one destiny, a destiny befitting its heavenly 
origin, a destiny worthy of the children of God. That 
destiny will not be accomplished till all shall have 
come to a perfect manhood, to the measure of the stat- 
ure of the fullness of Christ. 

Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 12, 



X. 

UNIVERSAL RESTORATION 

The Doctrine of the First Five Centuries.* 



BY JOHN WESLEY HANSON, D. D. 



THE earliest of the Christian writings after those of 
the apostles do not dwell on questions of es- 
chatology. They are chiefly occupied with our Lord's 
advent and its blessings to the world. Most of the 
documents that survive are hortatory. It was an age 
of apologetics, not of polemics. A much prejudiced 
writer 1 concedes that the first Christians "touched but 
lightly and incidentally on points of doctrine," but 
presented "the doctrines of Christianity in the very 
words of Scripture, giving us often no certain clue 
to their interpretations of the language." The earliest 
creeds are silent as to the duration of punishment, but 
only declare its certainty, 2 We should, therefore, under- 
stand the earlier writers as they are subsequently inter- 
preted by those who were the first to explain Scriptural 
terms, and who defined the doctrines of the Gospel 
as the primitive Christians understood them. 

*The notes to which the figures in this chapter refer may be found in the 
Appendix, 



UNIVERSAL RESTORATION. 147 

One consideration is important: Irenaeus (A. D. 
120 — 202 ), 3 and Hippolytus (A. D. 220), 4 wrote works 
refuting all the known heresies of their times. Uni- 
versal restoration is not named among those here- 
sies, although at that time the Sibylline Oracles, 
which avows the doctrine, was cherished by all Chris- 
tians, and ranked but little below the Bible in the gen- 
eral opinion. 

When our Lord spoke, and his immediate followers 
taught, the doctrine of unending punishment was gen- 
erally held by the outside world. Many of the pagans 
accepted it, — the wisest of them admitting it to be a 
heathen invention, — and, though not taught in the Old 
Testament, the Jews had imbibed it from pagan 
sources, chiefly during the Babylonish captivity, and 
strenuously taught it. 5 Josephus informs us 6 that the 
Pharisees inculcated it, but our Lord and his earlier fol- 
lowers never employed the terms by which the Jews 
and pagans declared the dogma. The Christian writers 
employed aio?iios, meaning indefinite but limited dur- 
ation, and kolasin, denoting chastisement resulting 
in reformation, to describe the nature and duration of 
punishment, while the Jews and pagans used aidios and 
adialeiptos meaning eternal, and eirgmos, imprison- 
ment, and timoria, torment. Our Lord and his apostles 
carefully abstained from expressing or implying the 
popular error by never using the terms employed by 
those of their contemporaries who taught it. 

Not only is this true, but the views held by the 
early Christians on other points demonstrate that they 
could not have regarded the consequences of sin as 
remediless. It was everywhere held that Christ had 
preached the Gospel to the dead in Hades, and many 
taught that all the damned were released. 7 They could 



148 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

not have believed this, and endless woe at the same 
time. Prayers for the dead, to relieve their condition, 
were universal, 8 which would have been folly had they 
held that their doom had been irretrievably fixed at 
death. 

The doctrine of purgatory, as now taught in the 
Catholic church, was not known until after several 
centuries from the death of our Lord. It was first stated 
at the close of the sixth century by Pope Gregory, its 
inventor. 9 Purgatory is a corruption of the doctrine 
that all God's punishments are remedial — a theory 
everywhere held in the early church, which precludes 
unending woe. 10 

The strongest negative evidence, perhaps, on this 
subject, is found in the testimony of the Catacombs. 11 
From the first century to the end of the fourth, the 
early Christians buried their dead in the soft rock that 
underlies Rome. Sixty excavations have been made, 
extending 587 miles. More than 6,000,000 bodies have 
been located, known to have been buried between the 
years 72 and 410. Eleven thousand epitaphs and in- 
scriptions have been found. Nothing but hope, cheer- 
fulness, serenity is expressed. Death to those primi- 
tive Christians, was birth into a better life, and there is 
literally nothing in all that is engraved there resem- 
bling the horrible ideas that began to be rife after the 
"dark shadow of Augustine" fell across Christendom. 12 

The Sibylline Oracles, the earliest production sub- 
sequent to the New Testament, explicitly avows the 
sentiment of universal restoration. 13 The part con- 
taining the doctrine dates from the year 80 to the 
second century. The author represents the good in 
heaven as finding their bliss destroyed by knowing the 
wretchedness of the lost, and with united voice they 



UNIVERSAL RESTORATION, 149 

beseech God to release them from their sufferings; and 
God hears them and saves them. This is what the 
"Oracles" says: 

"The omnipotent, incorruptible God shall confer another 
favor on his worshipers, when they shall ask him: He shall save 
mankind from the pernicious fire and immortal agonies. * * * 
Having gathered them and safely secured them from the un- 
wearied flame, * * he shall send them, for his people's sake, 
into another and aionian life, with the immortals." 

The Sibyl anticipates the poet Whittier: 

"Still thy love, O Christ arisen, 
Yearns to reach 'those souls in prison!' 
Thro' all depths of sin and loss, 
Drops the plummet of thy cross. 
Never yet abyss was found 
Deeper than that cross could sound; 
Deep below as high above 
Sweeps the circle of God's love." 

The Sibyl was ranked with David, in the famous 
hymn everywhere sung in the church, for a thousand 
years: 

''Dies irae, dies ilia, 
Solvet sceclum infavilla, 
Teste David cum Sibylla.'' 1 

Three great Gnostic Christian sects, the Valentinians, 
the Basilidians, and the Carpocratians — from 117 to 200 
— made restorationism prominent, and the Oracles was 
a classic from the beginning of Christianity down to 
the middle ages. 

But the cruel persecutions of Decius and Diocletian 
destroyed nearly all the early Christian writings. A 
very few manuscripts and the inscriptions in the Cata- 
combs give us about all we know of the early opinions 
concerning the future, until we reach Clement and 
Origen, who tell us explicitly what those views 
were, 14 So far as history reveals, the Christians of the 



150 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

first centuries prolonged the key-note of the Gospels 
and the Epistles of the New Testament — that joy to all 
people, universal deliverance from sin and sorrow had 
come to the world through the advent of Christ. 15 All 
the words that belong to his mission, 16 gospel, kingdom 
of God, saviour, grace, peace, living water, bread of 
life, are " brimful of promise and joy." And Chris- 
tians were everywhere characterized by joyfulness and 
cheerfulness. Historians agree that no subsequent 
period in the history of Christianity approaches the 
serenity, joy, peace and purity of the first three cen- 
turies. The gloom, asceticism, the dark theology that 
followed Augustine — invented by him — were entirely 
unknown. 17 

The first attempt at systematizing the Christian re- 
ligion, the first dogmatic statement of the prevalent 
Christian opinion on the subject of human destiny, was 
in Alexandria, at that time the center of culture, 
thought, and mental activity in the then known world. 
From the time of Ptolemy Soter, (306-385 B. C.) till 
more than 200 A. D., the books, scholars and learning 
of the world were here in this Greek-speaking city, 
with its population of 600,000, and its library of 700,- 
000 volumes. Here was founded the first Christian 
theological school that ever existed. The first scholar 
of note who was connected with this institution, was 
Anaxagoras, who was followed by Pantaenus, in 179. 
Under Anaxagoras, the school was for the instruction 
of proselytes, but Pantaenus made it a theological sem- 
inary. 18 In a short time similar institutions were estab- 
lished in Antioch, Edessa, Athens and Nisibis, but that 
in Alexandria was the principal one. Here the Greek 
language was spoken, — the language in which the Chris- 
tian records were written, and here the doctrine of uni- 



UNIVERSAL RESTORATION. 151 

versal salvation was explicitly proclaimed. Nothing 
survives of Anaxagoras or Pantaenus, but the distin- 
guished disciple of the latter, Clement of Alexandria, 
has left copious writings to show what was the type of 
Christian thought at least as early as the years 150-220, 
the dates of his birth and death. Charles Kingsley 
says: 19 

" To those old Christians a being who was not seeking after 
every single creature, and trying to raise him, could not be a be- 
ing of absolute righteousness, power and love. * * * The 
Alexandrian Christians made the best, perhaps the only, attempt 
yet made by man to proclaim a true world philosophy," and pro- 
duced "in the lives of millions, generation after generation, a 
more immense moral improvement than the world had ever seen 
before. * * * They did for centuries work a distinct and pal- 
pable deliverance on the earth." 

Farrar declares that 20 Alexandria " was the cradle of 
Christian theology." 

While, then, the Catacombs tell us the belief of the 
poor and unlettered, the Alexandrian scholars alone 
give us the doctrines of the teachers of the early 
church. We must, therefore, turn to the head of the 
Alexandrian theological school to learn the theology 
of the Christian church during the second century. 
Clement became its president, A. D. 189. While he 
was confessedly a philosopher, and met the wisest 
pagans successfully on philosophical grounds, he de- 
rived his theology from the Bible. He says, himself: 21 
"We wait for no human testimony, but bring proof of 
what we assert from the word of the Lord, which is 
the most trustworthy, or rather the only evidence." 
And Clement could not have erred. Greek was his 
mother tongue; and he knew perfectly the meaning of 
those words which have since been the subject of con- 
troversy among Christians; first among the Latins, and 



152 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

later in other languages, by those who were obliged to 
deal with them as foreign words, through the medium 
of translations. When, therefore, he uses aionios, ren- 
dered eternal, everlasting in the New Testament, to 
signify limited duration, as he repeatedly does, and de- 
clares over and over again that all punishment is dis- 
ciplinary, he knew the facts better than those who were 
not Greeks, and were further removed from the origin 
of Christianity. Especially is his authority better than 
that of Augustine who first formulated the dogma of 
endless punishment, more than a century afterwards, 
and who acknowledges 22 that he was not competent to 
define Greek words. And when Clement claims to re- 
produce " an original, unwritten tradition," which he 
learned "from a disciple of the apostles," we must give 
to his words greater weight than to those of any other 
ancient this side of the apostles, whose writings sur- 
vive. Bunsen well styles him, "the first Christian phil- 
osopher of mankind. He believed in a universal plan 
of a divine education of the human race." 23 

I might cite pages from Clement to demonstrate 
his views. He says: 2 * 

"So he saves all; but some he converts by penalties; others 
who follow him of their own will, and in accordance with the 
worthiness of his honor, that every knee may be bent to him of 
celestial, terrestrial and infernal things, (Phil, ii: 10,) that is 
angels, men, and souls who before his advent migrated from this 
mortal life." Again: 25 "For there are partial corrections 26 
which are called chastisements, 27 which many of us who have 
been in transgression incur from falling away from the Lord's 
people. But as children are chastised by their teacher, or their 
father, so are we by Providence, but God does not punish, 28 for 
punishment 29 is retaliation for evil. He chastises, however, for 
good to those who are chastised, collectively and individually." 

This important passage is very instructive in the 



UNIVERSAL RESTORATION. 1 53 

light it sheds on the primitive usage of Greek words. 
The word chastisement is rendered from kolasis which 
is the word translated punishment in Matthew xxv: 46, 
and punishment is from timoria, which Josephus uses to 
mean torment, but which Clement says God never in- 
flicts, and which the New Testament never employs to 
denote the consequences of sin. Clement further de- 
clares 30 that the punishment in Hades is restorative, 
curative, and that punished souls are cleansed by the 
fire of punishment. He says: 31 

"If in this life there are so many ways for purification and re- 
pentance, how much more should there be after death. The puri- 
fication of souls, when separated from the body will be easier. 
We can set no limits to the agency of the Redeemer; to redeem, 
to rescue, to discipline, is his work, and so will he continue to op- 
erate after this life." 32 "And how is he Saviour and Lord, and 
not Saviour and Lord of all? But he (Christ) is the Saviour of 
those who have believed because of their wishing to know, and of 
those who have not believed he is Lord, until by being brought to 
confess him, they shall receive the proper and well-adapted bless- 
ings for themselves which come by him." 

Not to quote more at length, it is the testimony of 
such critics as Allen, 33 Bigg, 34 De Pressense, 35 Maurice, 36 
Baur, 37 Daille, 38 Farrar, 39 and others, that Clement 
taught that God is never angry with man; hating sin 
with unlimited hatred but loving the sinner with illimi- 
table love; and that all his punishments are means to 
ends, to convert and redeem. Allen in his Continuity 
of Christian Thought thus epitomizes Clement: 

"The judgment is not conceived as the final assize of the uni- 
verse in some remote future, but as a present continuous element 
in the process of human education. The purpose of the judg- 
ment, as of all the divine penalties, is always remedial. Judgment 
enters into the work of redemption as a constructive factor. The 
censures, the punishments, the judgments of God are a neces- 
sary element of the educational process in the life of humanity, 



154 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

and the motive which underlies is goodness and love. * * 
There is no necessity that God should be reconciled with human- 
ity, for there is no schism in the divine nature between love and 
justice which needs to be overcome. * * Justice and love are 
in reality the same attribute. * * God is most loving when he 
is most just, and most just when he is most loving. God works 
all things up to what is better. Clement would not tolerate the 
thought that any soul would continue forever to resist the force 
of redeeming love . Somehow and somewhere in the long run of 
ages that love must prove weightier than sin and death, and vin- 
dicate its power in one universal triumph." 

Bigg thinks that Clement is a better exponent of 
the ideas of the apostles than even Origen, because ne 
lived under circumstances where "primitive thoughts 
and habits lingered longer than elsewhere." 40 

In fact, original sin, total depravity, infant guilt and 
damnation, election, vicarious atonement, endless pun- 
ishment as the penalty of sin, indeed, as Allen says, 41 
"none of the individual doctrines or tenets which have 
so long been the object of dislike and animadversion 
to the modern theological mind, formed any con- 
stituent part in Greek theology," The views taught in 
this greatest and first of the ancient theological schools, 
by Clement, and presumably by Pantaenus, Anaxagoras 
and their predecessors back to the apostles, were 
substantially those of the Universalist Church of today, 
so far as they included the character of God, the resur- 
rection, the judgment, the nature and design of punish- 
ment, and the final destiny of mankind. 

If this is true of Clement, it is infinitely more so of 
Origen who succeeded Clement as president of the 
Catechetical school of Alexandria, A. D. 203, at the 
astonishingly early age of eighteen. 42 It would require 
a volume to describe the wonderful ability, saintly 
character, and voluminous productions of this greatest 



UNIVERSAL RESTORATION. 1 55 

saint and scholar of the Christian ages. 43 The consensus 
of Christian historians places his name first in the long 
roll of eminent saints and scholars. Eulogy in his 
praise is almost exhausted by Mosheim, 44 Schaff, 45 
Bigg, 46 Bunsen, 47 De Pressense, 48 Neale, 49 Westcott, 50 
Farrar. 51 He taught the theology of Clement far more 
fully than Clement himself. Celsus, the early assailant 
of Christianity, objected to it because it taught punish- 
ment by fire. 52 Origen replied that God's fire possesses 
a disciplinary, purifying quality, 53 that will not harm 
the sinner, but consumes in him that which is evil. 
He repeatedly uses the word 54 with which our Lord 
defines the duration of punishment, in Matt, xxv, 46, 
but declares that beyond it is restoration. His great 
work, De Pri?icipiis, Greek, Peri Archon, which is the 
first formal presentation of Christianity as a system ever 
made, 55 presents universal salvation as a fundamental 
and essential truth. De Principiis was given to the 

world A. D. 230. Here is a specimen passage: 56 

"The end of the world then, and the final consummation will 
take place when every one shall be subjected to punishment for 
his sins; a time which God alone knows, when he will bestow on 
each one what he deserves. We think indeed, that the goodness 
of God, through his Christ, may recall all his creatures to one end, 
even his enemies being conquered and subdued. * * What 
then is this 'putting under' by which all things must be made 
subject to Christ? I am of opinion that it is this very subjection 
by which we also wish to be subject to him, by which the apostles 
were subject, and all the saints have been followers of Christ. For 
the word 'subjection' by which we are subject to Christ, indicates 
that the salvation which proceeds from him belongs to his sub- 
jects. ** God is a consuming fire because he 'consumes evil 
thoughts,' a 'refiner's fire, to refine the rational nature." He 
says: 57 "The stoics, indeed, hold that when the strongest of the 
elements prevails, all things shall be turned into fire. But our 
belief is that the Word shall prevail over the entire rational 
creation, and change every soul into its own perfection; in which 



156 UNIVERSAL1ST CONGRESS. 

state every one, by the mere exercise of his power, will choose 
what he desires, and obtain what he chooses. For, although in 
the diseases and wounds of the body, there are some which no 
medical skill can cure, yet'we hold that in the mind there is no 
evil so strong that it may not be overcome by the supreme Word, 
and God." 

He regards Gehenna (Hell), as an agent in this pro- 
cess. He tells Celsus, 58 "We find that what was termed 
'Gehenna,' or 'the valley of Ennom,' was intended for 
the purification of such souls as are to be purified by 
torments." In reply to Celsus's charge that Christians 
teach that sinners will be burnt up, Origen says, 59 that 
some foolish Christians had entertained such views, in 
consequence of not understanding the Scriptures; but 
he declares that God's fire is always a means to the end 
of purification; and when Celsus charges that the 
Christian's God acts like a cook, in roasting men, 
Origen replies, "not like a cook, but like a God who is 
the benefactor of those needing the discipline of fire." 60 

He says, God would not tell us to put away anger, 
wrath, and then be guilty himself of what he prohibits 
in us. Dr. Bigg thus sums up Origen's views: 61 

•'Slowly, yet certainly, the blessed change must come, the puri- 
fying fire must eat up the dross and leave the pure gold. * * One 
by one we shall enter into rest, never to stray again. Then, when 
death, the last enemy is destroyed, when the tale of his children is 
complete, Christ will 'drink wine in the kingdom of his Father.' 
This is the end,when 'all shall be one as Christ and the Father are 
one,' when 'God shall be all in all.' " 

Origen's expositions of the word rendered ever- 
lasting, 62 of Gehenna, of fire, of all punishment, of the 
results of Christ's mission, are identically those of 
Universalist scholars today; and they are not put forth 
by him controversially, but are his statements of 
Christian doctrine as understood by the church of his 
time ; and there is not a particle of evidence that these 



UNIVERSAL RESTORATION. I $7 

ideas were dissented from by his contemporaries. 
These opinions of Origen are not only set forth in a 
great number of passages in his writings, 63 but are con- 
ceded by Bigg, 64 Hagenbach, 65 Mosheim, 66 Robertson. 67 
The Dictionary of Christian Biography, 68 Blunt, 69 
Neander, 70 Schaff, 71 Farrar, Bunsen, 72 and indeed, by all 
the eminent writers who have written about him. 

Dr. Bigg thus interprets Origen: 73 "What the 
church cannot pardon, God may. The sin which has 
no forgiveness in this aeon or in the aeon to come, may 
be atoned for in some one of the countless aeons of the 
vast hereafter." This exegesis shows us how the 
primitive church regarded the "unpardonable sin," Matt, 
xii. 32. The sin against the Holy Ghost "shall not be 
forgiven in this world, (azon, age), nor in the world 
(aion, age), to come." But Origen and the early 
church taught that it will be in some subsequent age. 
As Origen, the Universalist, employed the word ren- 
dered everlasting, eternal, to describe his idea of the du- 
ration of punishment, — as did Titus of Bostra, Gregory 
of Nyssa, and other restorationists, as I shall show 
later on, — we are estopped from supposing that other 
early Christians held to endless punishment merely be- 
cause they use the same word. 

It should not be inferred that these views were 
peculiar to Clement and Origen, for, as the historian 
Neale accurately observes: 74 "In reading the works of 
Origen we are not to consider his tenets and opinions 
as those of one isolated doctor; they are rather an em- 
bodiment of the doctrines handed down in the cate- 
chetical school of Alexandria. And this school was the 
type or model, according to which the mind of the 
Alexandrian church was cast; the philosophy of Pan- 
taenus descended to Clemens, and from him was caught 



158 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

by Origen." And it may be added that as long as the 
school existed they continued to be taught, and con- 
trary to the prevailing impression, 75 were not condemned 
until into the dark ages; for, though the Emperor Jus- 
tinian issued an edict in 544, demanding their condemna- 
tion, 76 the council did not obey him, and the doctrines 
of Origen and Clement continued to be taught until the 
approaching darkness of subsequent times obscured 
the truth. Eusebius, a Restorationist, was active in the 
Council of Nice (A. D. 315), and the Gregories, Nazi- 
anzen and Nyssen, 77 both Universalists, controlled that 
of Constantinople, (A. D. 381); so that Universalism 
must have been orthodox then. 

Not only was the Alexandrian church the custodian 
of the truth, but it was quite as distinctly taught in 
other portions of the Christian world. 78 During, and 
for a long time after, Origen's time there were five other 
religious schools in different portions of Christendom, 
in three of which besides that in Alexandria, Universal- 
ism was taught. 79 In one of the others the annihilation 
of the wicked was held, a doctrine brought by converts 
from Paganism; and in the other endless punishment 
was held, probably derived from Jewish converts, who 
had imported the error through the Babylonian sojourn 
of the Jews. The last two, however, were only schools 
for catechumens. The other four were Universalist 
schools, and they were the only strictly theological 
schools in all the world. Two of them accepted the 
Universalism of Clement and Origen, those in Alexan- 
dria and Cesaraea, and two, those in Antioch and 
Edessa, that of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore 
of Tarsus. 80 All four thoroughly agreed on the fact of 
universal restoration; they differed only as to the pro- 
cess of its accomplishment. 



UNIVERSAL RESTORATION. 1 59 

That the doctrine was prevalent in the fourth cen- 
tury is the testimony of historians. Says Dietelmair 81 
"Universalism in the fourth century drove its roots 
down deeply alike in the east and the west, and had very 
many defenders;" to which Gieseler adds: 82 "The be- 
lief in the inalienable power of amendment in all ra- 
tional creatures, and the limited duration of future pun- 
ishment, was general, even in the west, and among the 
opponents of Origen." Doederlein declares: 83 ''The 
more highly distinguished in Christian antiquity any 
one was for learning, so much the more did he cherish 
and defend the hope of future torment sometime end- 
ing." 8 ' 

Time will permit only the briefest references to the 
eminent saints and scholars, who, in different portions 
of Christendom and in different centuries, illustrate the 
foregoing statements concerning the prevalence of our 
faith in the first four or five centuries. 

I can barely name Clemens Romanus (60-120); 
Theophilus of Antioch (150-180); Athenodorus, Her- 
acles, Dionysius, Firmilian, Theognostus, Palladius 
and Pierius, intimates of Origen; Pamphilus (250-309); 
Eusebius, and Didymus the Blind (309-395); Mar- 
cellus (315); Rufinus (345-410); Ambrose of Milan 
(340-398); Serapion (346); Chrysostom (347-407); 
Victorinus (360); Hilary (368); Macarius Magnes (370); 
Theodoretus the Blessed, (387-458); Cassianus (390- 
440); and Evagrius (390). These, like the other ac- 
knowledged ancient Restorationists were men distin- 
guished for their intelligence, learning and piety. 

Among the greatest of the Fathers, perhaps, sub- 
sequent to Origen, were Gregory of Nazianzus (330- 
390), and more prominently Theodore of Mopsuestia 
(350-428), who have left most emphatic testimony. 85 
Brief quotations must suffice. Theodore says: 



160 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS 

"The wicked who had committed evil the whole period of 
their lives shall be punished till they learn that, by continuing in 
sin, they only continue in misery. And, when by this means, they 
shall have been brought to fear God, and to regard him with 
good will, they shall obtain the enjoyment of his grace. For he 
never would have said 'until thou hast paid the uttermost farth- 
ing, 86 unless we can be released from suffering after having 
suffered adequately for sin; nor would he have said, 'he shall be 
beaten with many stripes,' and again, 'he shall be beaten with few 
stripes,' 87 unless the punishment to be endured for sin shall have 
an end." Theodore declared that the punishment of the condemned 
is called eternal because it belongs to eternity, and not because it 
is endless; 88 but both reason and Scripture lead us to the conclu- 
sion that they will be remissible on repentance. God 89 "recapit- 
ulated all things in Christ, * * as though making a compend- 
ious renewal and restoration of the whole creation to him. Now 
this will take place in a future age, when all mankind, and all 
powers possessed of reason, look up to him, as is his right, and 
obtain mutual concord and firm peace." 90 

Theodore was a warm opponent of some of Origen's 
views, though they agreed in accepting universal sal- 
vation. Origen exalted the freedom of the human will, 
and Theodore, the divine efficiency. Their differences 
resembled those of Doctors Sawyer and Williamson in 
our own church — they agreed concerning the result, but 
differed as to the process. 

After the condemnation of Origen and Theodore, by 
church councils, most of their works were either muti- 
lated or destroyed by their opponents, otherwise we 
might have pages where we have sentences to vindicate 
our thesis. 

I can only allude to Titus of Bostra (33 8 ~37 8 )> 
who says: 91 

"The abyss of torment is indeed the place of chastisement, 
but it is not eternal, 92 nor did it exist in the original constitution of 
nature. It was made afterwards, as a remedy for sinners, that it 
might cure them. The anguish of their sufferings compels them 



UNIVERSAL RESTORATION. l6l 

to break off their iniquities. * * All universally shall be made 
one through Christ, and in Christ." 

Passing over many minor authorities, I must not 
fail to mention three remarkable brothers, and their 
more remarkable sister — Basil the Great, Gregory of 
Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste, and the " Blessed Macrina," 
who were among the most influential, conspicuous, and 
saintly figures of the church from 350 to 390. They 
were all four undoubtedly Universalists, as they wrought 
together in perfect sympathy, though distinct avowals 
of the doctrine are found only in the writings of Macrina 
and Gregory. They were grandchildren of another 
Macrina, who was the disciple of Gregory Thaumatur- 
gus, the zealous defender of Origen, and who was con- 
spicuous in the church nearly a century before. This 
Gregory lived from 210 to 270. All these eminent 
characters, except Origen, were canonized by the 
Catholic church. The eldest child of this family was 
Macrina, who was born in 327, and whose influence 
moulded her three brothers, all whom became emi- 
nent bishops. Basil died 93 first, and Gregory, who was 
at the death-bed of his sister, reports her dying words 
in two books which he wrote, both existing in their 
original Greek, and in Latin translations. 94 Gregory 
reports Macrina as saying on the "all in all" of Paul: 95 

"The Word seems to me to lay down the doctrine of the per- 
fect obliteration of wickedness, for if God shall be in all things 
that are, obviously wickedness shall not be in them." 96 Again, 97 
"when evil has been extirpated in the long cycles of the aeons, 
nothing shall be left outside the boundaries of good, but even from 
them shall be unanimously uttered the confession of the Lordship 
of Christ." Again, the "resurrection is only the restoration of 
human nature to its pristine condition." 98 

This conversation is full of our sentiments, and the 
character of Macrina is one of the finest among the 



1 62 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

saintly women of Christendom." Her brother Gregory 
not only enthusiastically reports her language, but fre- 
quently so states it that it is difficult to decide whether 
it is his own or his sister's. But he himself writes : 10l) 

"What then is the scope of St. Paul's argument in this place? 
That the nature of evil shall be wholly exterminated, and divine, 
immortal goodness embrace within itself all intelligent natures; so 
that, of all who were made by God, not one shall be exiled from 
his kingdom. All the viciousness that like a corrupt matter is 
mingled in things, shall be dissolved, and consumed in the fur- 
nace of purifying fire, and everything that had its origin from 
God shall be restored to its primal condition of purity." 

Again, 101 "For it is evident that God will be 'all in all' when 
there shall be no evil in existence, when every created being is at 
harmony with itself; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus 
Christ is Lord; when every creature shall have been made one 
body. Now the body of Christ, as I have often said, is the whole 
of humanity." 102 Here is a very instructive sentence: 103 "Who- 
ever considers the divine power will plainly perceive, that it is 
able at length to restore, by means of the purifying punish- 
ment 104 and expiatory sufferings those who have gone even to 
this extremity of wickedness." 

Thus the very word rendered punishment used by 
our Lord in Matthew xxv: 46, is declared by the great- 
est father of the Fourth Century to be limited means 
to the end of salvation. 105 Aionian (everlasting) punish- 
ment is a means to the end of restoration— hence it 
must be limited. 

While Gregory and his sister and brothers, as well 
as their grandmother Macrina, and her teacher Gregory, 
were all Universalists, and canonized by the Catholic 
church, Origen and Theodore were anathematized — not, 
however, on account of their Universalism. Indeed, it 
may be said that heretics and orthodox, the most eminent 
of both parties during the first centuries, agreed on the 
final salvation of the human family, until the opposite 



UNIVERSAL RESTORATION. 163 

sentiment introduced by Tertullian, (160-220), and 
elaborated by Augustine, (354-420), under African and 
Latin auspices, got possession of the mechanical 
Roman mind, and began the perversion and adulter- 
ation of Christianity that resulted. Even Professor 
Schaff admits 103 that— 

"The world overcame the church as much as the church over- 
came the world, and the temporal gain of Christianity was in many 
respects canceled by spiritual loss. The mass of the Roman em- 
pire was baptized only with water, not with the spirit and fire of 
the Gospel, and it smuggled heathen practices and manners into 
the sanctuary under a new name." 

But when the Arabs overran the east, destroyed 
Alexandria, and drove Christianity out, and Latin be- 
came the language of learning, more and more the 
cheerful spirit of Christianity receded, and its truths 
were eclipsed until the gloom and horror of medivaeal 
creeds and a pseudo Christianity™ 7 almost universally 
prevailed. As long as Greek, the language of the New 
Testament, was the language of the church, universal 
salvation was the prevalent doctrine of Christendom 
And more than this, while Tertullian and most promi- 
nent defenders of endless punishment were heathen born 
and reared, or led corrupt and vicious lives in their 
youth — Augustine confesses he passed his years of 
early manhood in the brothels of Carthage — Origen, 
the Gregories, Basil, Didymus, Theodore, Theodoret 
and others were not only greatest among the saints in 
their maturity, but they were reared by Christian 
parents. 

The Rev. Thomas Allin, of the Episcopal church, 
in his recent volume, declares: 108 

"In that famous age of the world's history, * * Univer- 
salism seems to have been the creed of the majority of Christians 
12 



164 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

in the east and west alike; perhaps, even of a large majority, 

* * * and in the roll of its teachers, * * * were * * 

* most of the greatest names of the greatest age of primitive 
Christianity. And this teaching, be it noted, is strongest where 
the language of the New Testament was a living tongue; i. e. in 
the greatest Greek fathers. It is strongest in the church's great- 
est era, and declines as knowledge and purity decline. On the 
other hand, endless penalty is most strongly taught precisely in 
those quarters where the New Testament was less read in the ori- 
ginal, and also, in the most corrupt ages of the church." 

In a similar strain is the testimony of Dr. Edward 
Beecher, who says: 109 

"All who held to universal restoration in the early ages, were, 
as a universally-conceded fact, eminent and devoted Christians. 

* * They were peculiarly distinguished for the excellence and 
loveliness of their Christian characters. I do not know an un- 
worthy, low, or mean character in any prominent open and 
avowed restorationist of that age of freedom of inquiry which was 
inaugurated by the Alexandrian school. * 110 The defenders of 
the doctrine of restoration were not exceeded in intellectual 
power, learning, and Christian character, by any men of the age. 
Who were greater in all these respects than Clement of Alex- 
andria, Origen, Didymus the Blind, Gregory of Nyssa, Diodore of 
Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Eusebius of Cesaraea, and 
Theodoret? All of these were avowed restorationists. * * * 
Who on the side of future (endless) punishment deserves such a 
eulogy as Dr. Schaff has given to Origen, and Dorner to Theodore 
of Mopsuestia? * * Beyond all doubt, in the age of Origen, 
and his scholars, and in the times of Theodore of Mopsuestia— 
(A. D. 200-A. D. 420) the weight of learned and influential ecclesi- 
astics was on the side of universal restoration." 

Nothing can be more evident to the careful reader 
of the early history of our religion, than that the an- 
nihilation of sin and evil, and the universal elevation 
of the human family to holiness and happiness, was 
the primitive doctrine of the Christian church, and that 
this doctrine prevailed until the Greek language and 
culture and spirit were overslaughed. 111 When the Bible 



UNIVERSAL RESTORATION. 165 

was no longer read in the original; when half heathen 
Roman Emperors dictated the doctrines of the church; 
when Christianity became Catholicism, and dense dark- 
ness and semi-barbarism possessed the popular mind, 
the light of the Gospel was extinguished, and "the faith 
once delivered to the saints" was buried — to emerge 
again, and become, as it is fast becoming, during this 
fin de siecle, the faith of Christendom. Our distin- 
guishing doctrine is not, therefore, as many suppose, a 
new one; it is the revival of an old one. It is a return 
to the positions of Clement of Alexandria, seventeen 
hundred years ago. It is the rejuvenation, the res- 
toration, the renaissance, the re-birth of Christianity. 112 
And as the Bible, which the hands of ignorance and 
superstition had overwritten into a hideous palimpsest 
is being read in its true meaning, and as increasing 
light pours upon its sacred pages, more and more men 
are learning to spell its divine messages correctly, as 
they were spoken or written at the beginning — in har- 
mony with man's intellectual, moral and affectional 
nature, and with the attributes and character of the 
Universal Father. 

Presentation Day, Hall of Washington, Sept. 15. 



XI. 

THE OBSCURATION OF UNIVERSALISM 

In the Early Church and ^Middle Ages, 



BY THOMAS J. SAWYER, D. D, 



IF, by the preceding paper in this volume, it has been 
made to appear that Universalism, or the doctrine 
of the ultimate salvation of all mankind, was widely 
entertained during several of the earlier ages of the 
Christian church, and that, too, by some of its most 
learned, and in their day, orthodox doctors, it becomes 
a question of no little interest how it happened after- 
wards to fall into general disrepute and undergo what 
might almost be called a total eclipse — an eclipse, 
indeed, which threw a shadow over many succeeding 
generations, and still covers, more or less densely, by 
far the greater part of Christendom. 

This question gains vastly in importance when we 
reflect upon the character and scope of the rejected 
doctrine, which asserts nothing less than the final holi- 
ness or moral perfection, and consequent happiness of 
the whole human race. A doctrine so comprehensive 
and grand, so honorable to the wisdom and goodness 



OBSCURATION OF UNIVERSALISM. 1 67 

of God, and at the same time so grateful to every noble 
mind and benevolent heart, ought, one would think, to 
be immortal, and when once apprehended and believed, 
should be imperishable. And so I believe it is. Through 
all the Christian ages, I think, there have been some 
who rejoiced in the recognition of this truth, while 
thousands of others in the deepest aspirations of their 
souls, have longed for it. 

Christianity awoke, as it had never been awakened 
before, the thought and hope of immortality. And 
with that thought, and the spirit of love which this 
religion kindled in all who received it, came the ques- 
tion as to the destiny of those who were about them 
and the multitudes beyond, of whom they had some 
knowledge. 

To this large question several answers were given. 
In respect to the happy destiny of those who believed 
on Christ and obeyed his law there was, in terms at 
least, a general agreement, for in all creeds " it is always 
well with the righteous." But as to the fate of the 
wicked, that is, the unbelieving and disobedient, there 
was in the early times of the church, as there is now, 
no such consensus of opinion. Some, as Arnobius and 
Justin Martyr, for instance, thought that the wicked 
will at last be annihilated and so absolutely cease to be. 
Others with Tertullian, Minucius Felix and Augustine, 
believed that the wicked will be preserved in existence, 
indeed, and be immortal, but only to suffer the wrath 
of God and be punished " without mercy and without 
end." 

In the presence of two such opinions as these, from 
one of which we instinctively shrink with dread, and 
contemplate the other only with amazement and horror, 
it should not be thought singular that some with a 



1 68 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

wider horizon and clearer eyes should have read the 
Gospel of Christ in a larger way. They saw the good- 
ness and love of God so great and unfaltering, and the 
redemptive powers of the cross of Christ so ample and 
enduring, that the heart of the most obdurate sinner 
must yield at last, and thus by " repentance toward God 
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" all men shall be 
saved. 

It need not be remarked that these three opinions 
practically embrace the whole circle of possibilities in 
the case, since it is evident if the wicked are not con- 
verted and saved, they must either be annihilated or 
otherwise be left in their sins, and consequently suffer 
their righteous punishment. 

Of those who entertained the larger and " better 
hope" I may mention as some of the more eminent, 
Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Diodorus, bishop of 
Tarsus, Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, Didymus, of 
Alexandria, and Theodorus, bishop of Mopsuestia, and 
to these I might add the names of many others less 
distinguished or less known. It seems that the doctrine 
of Universalism was generally involved in the teaching 
of the great catechetical school of Alexandria, the 
first and the most famous theological seminary of the 
early church, through the greater part of its existence, 
as it also was, if I mistake not, of the similar schools of 
Caesarea, Antioch and Edessa. Some of those named 
above, and the students who proceeded from those 
schools, were certainly among the most learned men of 
their time, and were regarded as most eminent for their 
industry and Christian labors. And this fact gives 
countenance at least, if it does not justify, the remark 
of Doederlein, a learned German divine, more than a 
hundred years ago, that, "in Christian antiquity the 



OBSCURATION OF UNIVERSALIS^. 1 69 

more distinguished any one was for erudition, so much 
the more did he cherish and defend the hope that 
punishments must sometime come to an end." 

In process of time, however, a great change came 
gradually over the thought and opinion of the church, 
and the great doctrine of universal salvation fell into 
discredit. It was long popularly supposed that it was 
condemned by a council of the church, either the 
home synod of Constantinople, about A. D. 544, or 
the fifth general council in the same city, held nine 
years after, A. D. 553, but recent investigations of 
English and American scholars lead to the conclusion 
that the doctrine was never condemned by any ecclesias- 
tical authority whatsoever. Both of the above bodies 
were called at the instance of the Emperor Justinian, 
who dictated an edict against this particular tenet of 
Origen's opinions, but although the councils were held 
under his direction, and in most particulars recorded 
his will, the condemnation of Origen's belief in univer- 
sal restoration was not ratified by either body. 

The fact that Universalism first fell into disrepute at 
so late a period seems to me very important. It had 
been in the church probably from the beginning; it had 
been maintained by many distinguished doctors; it had 
held its place, side by side, with the doctrine which 
teaches the annihilation of the wicked and that which 
affirms their endless punishment. And yet for five 
centuries, no council, nor even a synod, had lifted its 
voice to pronounce it heretical. There is one circum- 
stance which marks this fact as very significant. Origen, 
the most learned man of his age, the most voluminous 
writer and the greatest preacher, was known to be a 
patron of this doctrine. During his life he was generally 
regarded as orthodox, and till within about twenty 



I/O UX1VERSAL1ST CONGRESS. 

years of his death, held his place unquestioned in the 
Catholic church. After this he fell under censure, was 
condemned by Demetrius, his bishop, for heresy and 
excommunicated from the church. Yet his Universal- 
ism, so far as we know, or have reason to believe, was 
never called in question and was never urged against 
him, nor was he condemned for it. For certain other 
opinions he was repeatedly censured and was condemned, 
but for his Universalism never. The three hundred 
years that had passed since the death of Origen had 
been ripe with controversies about the truths of Chris- 
tianity, and doctrinal errors had been carefully hunted 
out, exposed and condemned, but Origen's Universalism 
had passed unnoticed. Let me here give a brief sketch 
of this remarkable man. 

He was born of Christian parents in Alexandria 
A. D. 1 86. His father early saw the promise he gave 
of rare abilities, and carefully watched his education. 
At the age of sixteen his father honored his Christian 
faith by martyrdom, which Origen was anxious to 
share. As his father's estate was confiscated, the 
family," of which Origen was the eldest, was left in 
poverty. At the age of eighteen, owing to his remark- 
able attainments in all branches of learning, and his 
singular maturity in Christian knowledge and character, 
he was appointed master of the great catechetical 
school of Alexandria, as successor of the celebrated 
Clement, whose pupil he had been. In this important 
position he remained for twenty-five or thirty years, 
winning for himself and his school a constantly increas- 
ing reputation. Then some events occurred which 
without compromising Origen's character, alienated the 
affection of Demetrius from him and turned him into 
a bitter and relentless enemy. I need not enter upon 



OBSCURATION OF UNIVERSALISM. 171 

this unhappy affair, the result of which was that by a 
local council under the influence of the bishop, Origen 
was degraded from the office of presbyter, and on some 
charges of heresy, condemned and excommunicated. 
This action of the authorities at Alexandria, the 
churches of Palestine, Phoenicia, Achaia and Arabia 
refused to approve and opened their arms to receive 
him. The consequence was that Origen transferred his 
residence from Alexandria to Caesarea, in Palestine, 
entered the theological school there, or created one, 
and went on with his studies, his teaching and writing, 
much as if nothing had happened. We do not know 
what were the grounds of Origen's condemnation for 
heresy, but as his Universalism was never urged against 
him for two or three centuries afterwards, and as no 
mention is made of it by his enemies, we may safely 
assume that this did not enter into the catalogue of his 
heresies. And quite aside from this he held, or at least 
proposed, a number of opinions which were made mat- 
ters of grave offense by the church. They were specu- 
lative notions for the most part, which could neither be 
proved nor disproved, and which contravened no 
essential doctrine of the Christian religion, but were 
simply odd conceits, such as the pre-existence of souls 
and the like. The condemnation of Origen by Demet- 
rius did little to injure his reputation among scholars 
and candid people who judged him by his Christian life 
and labors. 

After great sufferings endured at the hand of pagan 
persecutors, from which he never wholly recovered, 
Origen died (A. D. 254), in the seventieth year of his 
age. And when he had been in his grave nearly a hundred 
and fifty years a great crusade was made upon his 
memory by Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, 



172 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

Jerome, a monk at Bethlehem, and Theophilus, bishop 
of Alexandria. Neander gives a very careful account 
of these disgraceful episodes in ecclesiastical history, 
and draws the characters of the three men with vivid- 
ness and accuracy. By them Origen was charged with 
a number of heresies and was condemed by local coun- 
cils held at Alexandria, in Cyprus and at Rome. I 
have read with some care the proceedings of these 
bodies and the correspondence of the three chief actors 
through the ten or twelve years during which the con- 
troversy or quarrel continued, and I fail to find that 
any mention was made of Origen's Universalism, or 
even an allusion to it, from beginning to end. A reason 
for this may be found, I think, in the fact that Jerome 
had previously avowed his faith in universal salvation 
as clearly as Origen himself, and Theophilus also had 
the reputation of being, or of having been an Origenist. 
Of the opinion of Epiphanius on the subject I cannot 
speak, but Gieseler tells us that at this period, "the 
belief in the inalienable capacity of improvement in all 
rational beings, and the limited duration of punishment 
was so general even in the west and among the oppon- 
ents of Origen that whatever may be said of its not 
having arisen without the influence of Origen's school, 
it had become entirely independent of his system." 

Even Augustine, the earnest advocate of endless 
punishment at the time, confesses that there were "some, 
yea, quam plurimi, very many," who did not believe 
his doctrines, and he spoke no doubt of the Christians 
of his own Northern Africa. 

What influence the noise and ebullition of passion 
against Origen and his eccentric opinions at the end of 
the fourth century, and at the beginning of the fifth, 
had upon the fortunes of Universalism, it is now diffi- 



Obscuration of ujvi versa lism. 173 

cult to say. But if they injured that doctrine incident- 
ally, they did a far greater injury in another way, for as 
Dr. Schaff says: "The condemnation of Origen struck 
a death blow to theological science in the Greek 
church, and left it to stiffen gradually into a mechani- 
cal traditionalism and formalism." And in this con- 
dition it has remained ever since. The same author 
pronounces Origen " the most learned and ablest 
divine of the ante-Nicene period, the Plato or Schleier- 
macher of the Greek church," and thinks "even the er- 
rors of such men more useful than the merely tradition- 
al orthodoxy of unthinking men, because they come 
from an honest search after truth and provoke new in- 
vestigation." 

That Universalism was condemned by the Emperor 
Justinian in an imperial edict, not, however, ratified by 
a council of the church, as heretofore stated, is a fact 
well established. The emperor was an earnest Chris- 
tian in his way, no doubt, but anxious to rule the church 
as well as the state, and to do both by imperial author- 
ity. As described by the historians he was often ruled 
by his wife, and she was often ruled by some crafty 
priests, who as frequently sought their own interests as 
those of the church. But the good emperor thought 
himself the church's nursing father and had no doubt 
that he was able to settle all questions in theology as 
well as those of state. In a letter to Mennas, the 
archbishop of Constantinople, about A. D. 540, he set 
forth in order the heresies of Origen which had been so 
thoroughly ventilated a hundred and forty years be- 
fore, and now for the first time introduced the salva- 
tion of all mankind in the catalogue of heresies. Epi- 
phanius and his associates had contented themselves 
with denouncing Origen's doctrine of the redemption 



174 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

of the devil, but Justinian went still further and in- 
cluded wicked men, and anathematized everyone who 
believed in the salvation of all. The words of the em- 
peror's edict are as follows: "If anyone says or holds 
that the punishment of the demons, and of ungodly 
men is temporal, that is, that after a certain time it will 
come to an end, and there will be a restoration of the 
demons and ungodly men, let him be anathema." 

To make this edict effective it was further ordered 
that thereafter no bishop or abbot should be ordained 
until he had approved this sentence of condemnation, 
and that any bishop or abbot who refused obedience to 
it, should be deposed and banished. After this, Uni- 
versalism could hold its place only in secret, and with 
all the forces of church and state arrayed against it, 
it naturally declined and after a time must have prac- 
tically died out. 

This is a very imperfect sketch, I am sensible, of 
the decline and disappearance of Universalism in the 
ancient church. There were causes no doubt lying 
back of these historical events, and several things 
probably contributed to the final result. The influence 
of St. Augustine, through the century and a quarter 
after his death, had been adverse to Universalism where- 
ever it had gone. His theory of the Christian religion was 
not only at war with Universalism, but with the Gospel 
itself. Though not so bold a system of foreordination 
as Calvin taught, it still involved the fact that the 
majority of the human race are born under a fatal 
curse and are by nature incapable of salvation. In the 
bosom of God there is no mercy for them and nothing 
remains but an eternity of torment. St. Augustine was 
an admirable rhetorician, but his logic was often lame 
and his theology horrible. Yet he dominated the 



OBSCURATION OF UNIVERSALISM. 1 75 

Catholic church for a thousand years, and, through 
Calvin, has largely ruled the Protestant church ever 
since the Reformation. 

But it is not in the realm of thought chiefly that we 
are to seek the causes of that obscuration of Universa- 
lism which marked the middle ages. There were a hun- 
dred unfriendly influences in the political condition of 
Christendom and the general state of society. In the 
breaking up of the unwieldy mass of the Roman 
Empire, in the incursions of barbarous nations, in the 
absorption and imperfect assimilation of pagans, with 
their ignorance and superstitions, it is one of the miracles 
of history that anything of Christianity was finally left. 

Read in Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. ij. 



XII. 

THE BIBLE: INSPIRATION AND 
REVELATION. 



BY GEORGE HOMER EMERSON, D. D. 



THE present essay would not be attempted but for 
the strong assurance in the mind of the writer 
that while it affects to represent the Universalist de- 
nomination in the views it puts forth touching the mu- 
tually related doctrines of Biblical Inspiration and 
Revelation, it will also present the real convictions of 
the particular person who is intrusted with the respon- 
sibility of formulating them. There is, however, an 
explanation due any hearer or reader of this paper to 
whom the nature and history of Universalist thought is 
not known. It should, therefore, be distinctly stated 
at the outset that the creed of the Universalist church 
is very brief and is restricted to quite general prin- 
ciples. "The Profession of Faith," as it is called, con- 
tains but three articles, and of these only two have a 
doctrinal character. Of the few specifications, but two 
can be pertinent to the present discussion, namely: a 
recognition of "the holy Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments" as "containing a revelation of the char- 



INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. 177 

acter of God," this revelation being made in, or through 
Jesus Christ, the process being described as "by one 
Holy Spirit of grace." In the year 1803, when the pro- 
fession was adopted as a bond of denominational union, 
there was no contention over the dogmatic contents of 
the words " inspiration " and " revelation." Hence, there 
was no attempt to define or limit them. Such particular- 
izing was by common consent placed under the head of 
"minor doctrines;" and in regard thereto every be- 
liever was invited to exercise his liberty, it was enough 
that he should be fully persuaded in his own mind. 

But while wide scope was given in regard to all mat- 
ters not nominated in the profession, it was generally 
understood, and as a matter of course, that there was 
in the origin and character of the Bible, a profound 
peculiarity differentiating it from all other kinds of 
literature; it was supposed to contain a revelation from 
God in a sense quite unlike that in which other books 
may have been said to reveal his will and purpose. The 
word "inspiration" does not occur in the profession. It 
may be doubted if the framers had been led by any 
exigency to form, even in thought, a mature definition. 
It is certain, however, that Universalist thinkers very 
early thought they saw insuperable difficulties in what 
is called plenary or verbal inspiration — that which at- 
tributes the exact words of Scripture to God's dicta- 
tion — law-givers, prophets, evangelists and apostles 
acting simply as amanuenses of the Holy Spirit. The 
Universalist mind at the beginning distinguished be- 
tween the thought of the Bible and the literary record 
thereof; it has for near a century been common be- 
lief among Universalists that the spiritual substance of 
the Bible was divinely imparted, but that the literary 
form was left to the choice of the several writers. No 



178 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

verbal enumeration can include all the beliefs special 
to Christian denominations; none the less, persons 
who hold in common certain basal principles of doc- 
trine will, by inevitable logic, become quite generally 
agreed even as respects important details. There is a 
large body of Universalist thought, distinctly such, the 
particulars of which have no formal and authoritative 
statement, but one who has exceptional opportunities 
through a long period of years to note the develop- 
ment of interpretations, may without conceit assume to 
state, with a good degree of accuracy, what are the be- 
liefs of his denomination on most matters of dogmatic 
interest. Though the great body of Universalists have 
delegated to no one the right to speak for each and all 
on the two-fold topic of this essay, the writer is quite 
confident that the number who may sharply dissent is 
quite small as compared to the number whose approval 
he confidently expects. Having thus made what he 
deems a needful explanatory statement, the writer will 
now proceed to an elucidation of his thought, and 
what he trusts will be generally — of course, not uni- 
versally — accepted as the thought of his denomination 
on the topic, two-fold in form, of inspiration and reve- 
lation as these pertain to the Bible. 

INSPIRATION. 

Every matter of human belief must of necessity 
imply the presence of two widely dissimilar factors: 
(1) the nature, the laws of the operation of the be- 
lieving faculties; and (2) the nature of the subject- 
matter of belief. To those who think, it will be 
evident that the elucidation of the one factor must 
never be confused or mixed with the elucidations of the 
Other. Of course, the two elucidations are expected to 



INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. 179 

join in forming the composite result; but in each case 
the analysis and statement must be kept apart from 
those of the other. For an example, the science of 
geology is the product of certain intellectual faculties 
acting upon the crust of the earth; but no one would 
think of ascertaining the laws, the scope, and the limit- 
ations of the human intelligence by any examination 
of rocks and alluvial deposits; nor, on the other hand, 
would he think of determining the order and the con- 
tents of stratification by referring to treatises on mental 
philosophy However the threads may unite in the 
cord, each thread is distinct; it may be different, from 
every other. In any and every belief, on any and every 
subject, it will be found that the subjective and the ob- 
jective enter, and that each has involved and utilized a 
line of reasoning special to itself. Mixed in a given 
result they never mix in the processes. 

The immediate phase of discussion is inspiration, 
yet it is, of course, understood that a statement is to be 
made in regard to Biblical inspiration — inspiration as in 
particular results it connects itself with the subject- 
matter of the Biblical contents. For the purpose of 
this elucidation, which effects to be rigidly analytic, 
the distinction must be clearly made between "the 
immediate phase" and inspiration as it is modified by 
what occasions it and by the particular truths in the 
utterance of which it is instrumental. There is excuse 
for iterating and re-iterating and for strenuously insist- 
ing upon the importance of the distinction thus defined. 
It may be regarded as the initial act in the whole series 
of definitions and statements Unless there are "clear 
ideas" at the outset, the subject will be confused at 
every stage of the discussion. What is here attempted 

is almost pioneer work. In fact, until quite recent 
13- 



180 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

years, criticism within the church has been restricted to 
the determining of the genuineness of the Biblical 
records and the endeavor to ascertain their dogmatic 
meaning; while mental philosophy, that which deals 
with the nature and offices of the intellectual and 
intuitional faculties of the believing soul, has been 
repelled as an intruder and a corrupter of faith. Only 
within the period of the last two or three decades have 
the criticism and philosophy which have been unspar- 
ingly dealt out by hostile and iconoclastic hands, and 
for long periods, by those outside of the church, been 
welcomed and used by friendly and constructive hands 
within the church. The field is as yet somewhat fallow, 
certainly that section is which this essay attempts to 
cover. Let the effort at needful analysis be, therefore, 
carefully made. 

Inspiration is easily apprehended as a cord with, at 
least, three quite dissimilar strands: — for the ends of 
this essay it naturally and unmistakably breaks into 
three parts: (i) Inspiration, as an estate of the mental 
and spiritual faculties; (2) the influence under which 
this particular estate is evoked or quickened; and (3) 
the deliverances, the imparted truths, which come from 
the faculties while under the inciting influence — deliver- 
ances which are identical with revelation, the second 
phase of the general subject now under consideration. 
In music we easily and habitually make the distinctions 
here outlined. For an example, the musical nature of 
Handel, the incitement under which he composed the 
"Messiah;" and the "Messiah" itself isolated from its 
authorship. 

I. It is one of the facts which,^though they do not, 
indeed, go without the saying, are apprehended as facts 
on a distinct statement, that inspiration in its simple 



INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. iSl 

self — considered as but an essential estate without re- 
gard to occasion or outcome — is purely a psychological 
question. Right here two very serious errors, causes 
of continuous mistakes running through entire processes 
of reasoning, have been made by conflicting or mutually 
hostile parties. 

1. In a spirit of what has been deemed loyalty to 
the Bible, it has been alleged that God did something 
to a few elect souls, whereby these souls gave the world 
the several books which collectively made The Book 
To this extent the allegation is true; but it has been 
added, often in form and uniformly and unmistakablyin 
accent and look, that this "something" is wholly inex- 
plicable; that any attempt to explain, account for or 
even define it, is impious presumption. "God," it was 
virtually said "inspired certain persons to give to the 
world a revelation of his will, purpose and requirements; 
let the statement stop right here: — another word 
in the way of explanation is presumptuous; and par- 
ticularly the attempt to explain in the light of philosophy 
is a most irrelevant, vain and impious conceit." 

2. On the other hand it has been affirmed with 
equal confidence and with equal lack of intelligence, if 
not in the exact words, certainly in the manner and 
with the implication, that the psychology of the sub- 
ject contains all that is to be said on the subject 
of inspiration either as respects the "emotion" or 
the outcome. It is conceded that Isaiah and Paul were 
inspired, and so were Homer, Milton, and Shakespeare; 
and this affirmation is thought to be as complete in 
what it directly affirms as in what by implication it is 
meant to deny. 

The time was, but happily is past, in which influen- 
tial divines thought that in pausing at the mysterious 



1 82 UNIYERSALIST CONGRESS. 

'•something," with mandatory intimations to ask no 
questions, they had done their full duty. It is to be 
hoped that the" influential divines" of the present may ere 
long reach a greater height of wisdom and be willing to 
see that psychology, authoritative in its sphere, has no 
vocation outside thereof, and that inspiration begins to 
differentiate and assume special qualities when con- 
sidered in relation to its occasions, and to the modify- 
ing effect, the retroactive influence, of the truths which 
it makes known; the occasions and the revelations of 
inspiration can have but an indirect relation to psycho- 
logical inquiry. 

When it is said, as it often is, that the root of inspi- 
ration is ever the same, whether in Paul or Shakspeare, 
in person moved by the Holy Spirit, or in those moved 
by a secular spirit, everything depends upon how much 
is meant by the word "root;" if the meaning is rigidly 
restricted to the primitive function or operation of the 
divine faculties in man, there can be no objection to the 
statement; further, it is to be said that its contrary 
"cannot be construed to thought." When we say that 
we cannot conceive of an ox in the act of taking a 
lunar observation, or of an ape in the act of framing a 
syllogism, we expect to be understood as implying that 
the ox lacks the mathematical, and the ape the logical 
faculty. When, as a strictly analogous case, we affirm 
our inability to conceive of either ox or ape in the act 
of thinking the nineteenth psalm, or the fifth chapter of 
the Epistle to the Romans, we expect to be understood 
as implying that with both ox and ape the psychologi- 
cal conditions of the indispensable inspiration are 
lacking. When, therefore, we are confronted with the 
statement: "Inspiration of course; all who feel and 
speak truths are inspired — all, whether a Plato or an 



INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. 183 

Isaiah, a sage or a prophet, an Alexandrian teacher or' 
an apostle of Jesus Christ," we answer "Yes and No: — 
Yes, if your inspiration means only the psychological 
function; but if you mean this inclusive of occasion and 
outcome, most emphatically, No!" 

It is, therefore, conceded — conceded? rather it is 
affirmed — that in the strictly ge?ieric phase of the gen- 
eral statement, nothing distinguishes the inspiration 
of a Paul from that of a Chatham. If there is a differ- 
entiation — and this essay will firmly insist that there is 
- — it comes at a later stage of the inquiry. It is 
essential to clear and consecutive thought as respects 
physics, philosophy, morals, or religion, to see that at 
the bottom — in the "roots" of faculty — prophet, evange- 
list, apostle, sage, and even savage, are identical. The 
notion that an Isaiah feels, thinks, and speaks in the 
use of one set of faculties, to a people who feel, think, 
and speak in the use of a different set of faculties, is 
grotesque in its absurdity; the simplest psychology 
rules out such a notion as unthinkable. 

II. A fact of great importance, and therefore needing 
formal statement, is, however, palpable when clearly 
apprehended — the influence under which the emotional 
part of inspiration is evoked, is foreign to, is external 
to, the faculties inspired. Even the beautiful passage, 
(Psalm xxxix: 3,) 

"While I was musing the fire kindled: 
Then spake I with my tongue," 

furnishes no exception to the rule. The "musing" is 
an intellectual process, and it precedes, and is the oc- 
casion of, the emotion — the kindling of the fire. Though 
both experiences are within the same person, the one 
is exterior to the other. Further, the process of mus- 
ing is generally centered upon things wholly exterior to 



1 84 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

' the individual There is a notable and quite represen- 
tative example in the eighth psalm. The author first 
notes the heavenly bodies — moon, sun, and stars — mus- 
ing upon which evokes the intellectual question how 
the creator thereof can be mindful of anything so rela- 
tively insignificant as man; then comes the inspiration; 
and then the revelation: 

"For thou hast made him but little lower than God, 
And crownest him with glory and honor." 

The distinctions here made are anything but fancies; 
they are unmistakable facts. The emotional part of 
the process, the inspiration element, is subjective. That 
which by acting upon the soul evokes the inspiration is 
objective. It is strictly correct to say that man is in- 
spired and that God inspires. The great theme will 
lose coherence if at any stage of reflection thereupon 
we forget, or are inconsistent with, the fact that the 
evoking power in inspiration is external to the inspired 
soul. 

III. While in a preceding paragraph it has been 
conceded and asserted, and as the only thinkable prop- 
osition, that the "root" of inspiration is identical in all 
souls — the same in philosopher and saint, in Plato and 
in a Modoc chief, in pure religion and in all the super- 
stitions, and for the sufficient reason that the essential 
is in all men the divine element that pledges glory and 
honor and immortality — it was announced that in the 
proper connection, this essay will firmly insist and ex- 
pect to command the general assent in so doing, on a 
commanding peculiarity in the inspiration that is dis- 
tinctively Biblical. An important step toward this is 
taken in the position just elucidated — that the inciting 
agency in inspiration is external to the soul. Now the 
truth, or even the error, or the mixture of truth and 



INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. l£$ 

error, which in its "rapt mood" the soul sees, or fancies 
it sees, has retroactive influence. We often say that 
one's conception of God affects his own character, and 
it is equally true that one's character in turn modifies 
his conception of God. The experience acts and re- 
acts. We, by our personality, modify the company we 
keep; the company we keep in turn modifies our own 
temper and lives. The objective point is that whatever 
is seen in inspiration, itself reflects back upon and gives 
tone and specialty to the inspiration. In this statement 
is the key to the essence of the comprehensive topic 
now under discussion. 

The statement breaks into two parts: I. As re- 
spects the degree of inspiration; and 2, as respects the 
spiritual nature thereof. 

I. The particular part of the statement which is 
here meant to imply that the degree of Biblical inspir- 
ation becomes the equivalent of a new character of in- 
spiration, had it been made half a century ago — at a 
time when the theory of verbal inspiration was not only 
dominant, but also bore sway in the minds of those who 
had nominally cast it off — would have been received 
with impatience if not with revolt. But at that period, 
as Principal Tullock enables us to see, psychology had 
had no recognized place among the constructors of 
theology. The fundamental change in this regard 
which distinguishes and shapes modern theological 
judgments, has made most of the old teaching on the 
subject effete. True, Bishop Butler in his masterly 
Analogy, as long ago as 1736, virtually applied psych- 
ological principles to the defense of Christianity against 
the scepticism of his time, and by so doing he turned 
against the sceptic his own weapon. But the theolo- 
gians of his time, and their successors for a long century, 



1 86 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. , 

did not really comprehend the nature of the new ally 
that made them invincible The most influential of 
even the truly conservative schools of the present will 
hardly venture to dispute in form the proposition here 
affirmed that the distinctive quality of Biblical inspira- 
tion is in part — only in part — in its towering quantity. 

A new ally comes to the support of this affirmation 
and from a quarter hardly to have been predicted. The 
basal principle of Evolution — which gives much prom- 
ise of taking its place as accepted science — is substan- 
tially to the effect that what have been regarded as 
specific differences in physical nature are, in fact, but 
variations of a common principle. The difference be- 
tween the crab-apple and the Baldwin is so very great 
that practically it is a new and distinct quality of fruit; 
yet the Baldwin is but a modification, a very great one, 
of the crab. The old science admitted and affirmed 
this of the apple, but it insisted that no modification of 
the apple could make a pear or a peach. Evolution, 
however, denies the specific difference between all the 
fruits so far as the word specific is understood to mean 
a fixed character. In fact, according to Evolution, all 
so-called qualitative differences are but immense quan- 
tative differences. The immediate purpose is the seek- 
ing of a striking analogy or illustration, and the value 
of this must not depend upon the accuracy of the de- 
scription given of evolutionary law; if the facts are not 
as here noted, it answers the practical purpose to treat 
them as suppositions. 

Now, turn to the eighth, the nineteenth, and the 
hundredth psalms; to the sermon on the mount; to the 
record in the Book of Acts of the pentecostal quicken- 
ing; to the second and fifteenth chapters of first Corin- 
thians — noting here that these are but samples of what 



INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. 1 8? 

is most abundant in the Scriptures — and who will put in 
comparison therewith, on the score of quality, any 
other religious literature? Who can question the 
matchless elevation of the inspiration which such 
Scriptures at once attest and embody — so profound in- 
deed that quantity becomes to all intents and purposes 
a new quality? 

2. Care has been taken to explain that quantitative 
difference accounts for the peculiar quality of inspira- 
tion "only in part." The further statement is not less 
essential: The quality of inspiration must be largely af- 
fected by the special nature of the truth it affirms and makes 
clear- Even after the concession that the influence 
which moved Shakespeare in the creation of "Hamlet" 
was in its "root," its primitive substance, identical with 
that which stirred Paul to write the eleventh chapter of 
the Epistle to the Romans, how dissimilar is the inspir- 
ation as it acts on, and is re-acted upon by the subject- 
matter of that chapter, from the quality it assumed 
when it produced the soliloquy. Exalted and even sub- 
lime as are elect passages in the great drama, we pass 
from them to elect passages in the writings of the 
apostle who counted it a joy to suffer stripes in alle- 
giance to a Divine Master. We suddenly, and with 
something of shock, find ourselves lifted into a new 
estate — in truth, a new world. Had Shakespeare at- 
tempted anything like the tone which pervades the 
Epistle to the Galatians, we should have pronounced 
him a lunatic; his subject-matter would not have ac- 
counted for it; no subject-matter proper to the dra- 
matic art can make other than incongruous a tone and 
unction and manner of authority which are as natural 
to the apostle as the atmosphere to the lungs. A relent- 
less psychology may compel us to regard Shakespear- 



188 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

ian and Pauline inspirations as similar at the fountain, 
but words fail in any attempt to describe their differ- 
ence in the stream. 

In an essay describing the theology that can be 
preached, the late Albert Barnes made statements to the 
effect that, while some theologies can be presented only 
in spectacle and procession — as in ancient Egypt, and 
others be simply intellectually taught — that of Greece 
finding its chief vehicle inSocratic dialogue, Christianity 
alone can be preached. Athens was the birth-place of 
oratory, yet no Greek orator ever had a theme of dis- 
course in theology, no Athenian ever heard a sermon, 
until Paul preached Christ on Mars Hill. Was this, is 
this, mis-statement? It does not so seem. Certain it 
is that to every one born of the spirit, to every one bap- 
tised into the Gospel life, there comes a new vision, and 
the words, "the pure in heart see God," are self-attest- 
ed. The "divine afflatus," whatever its quality at the 
root, takes on the hue and specialty of the truth which 
it recognizes and into which it enters to suffuse, il- 
lumine, and to speak with resistless power. 

REVELATION. 

The incipiency of the subject of Revelation may be 
said to be substantially in that of inspiration. It has ? 
therefore, had what may be called a germinal treat- 
ment in what has already been discussed. This con- 
sideration may considerably lessen the treatment which 
the second phase of our comprehensive theme de- 
mands; none the less, distinct statements, quite special 
to revelation, may and should be attempted. 

Alike in popular and in critical thought, revelation 
is the correlate of inspiration. One may be called the 
vehicle, and the other the matter conveyed. All Scrip- 



INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. 1 89 

ture profitable for doctrine, life and conduct, is given 
by inspiration. 

This popular form of statement is sufficiently accur- 
ate for directly practical ends. Yet, as a little reflec- 
tion will show, the statement is a figure of speech. As 
there is constant danger that elucidation may confound 
and interchange the figurative and the literal, there is 
need of more precise and guarded definition. Instead 
of limiting ourselves to such phraseology as, " Certain 
truths are revealed by inspiration," it will be more phil- 
osophic and nearer verbal accuracy, to make this 
formula: "The act of revelation, while one is in the 
estate of inspiration, is vision; revelation itself is the 
result — as objective reality it is the thing seen." 

In literal phrase, spiritual realities are quite distinct 
from what are called facts — certainly from events. The 
essential, the spiritual substances of revelation, cannot 
be imparted; that is, they cannot be passed over from 
one mind to another. They are not freight nor merchan- 
dise to be tossed and caught as one may often see that 
bricks are tossed by one workman and caught by an- 
other. They are not labelled for conveyance. On the 
contrary, spiritual realities are objects of the inner 
sight; in the correlated and rapt mood the eye of the 
soul, in the light of its inspiration, sees them. In the 
special purpose of this elucidation, let this be a stand- 
ard or unit of measurement. 

The mistake, however, would be serious, and the 
cause of continuous mistakes, were we to fancy that the 
Biblical writers, or their interpreters, had any such 
" standard of measurement " in all or any of their 
thoughts. If there is anyone thing in regard to which 
all Biblical critics and interpreters, of all schools, are 
in perfect accord, it is in the seeing and asserting that 



I9O UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS 

the Bible is at the furthest remove from a philosophic 
treatise, or from a form at all analogous to such a 
treatise, or from any attempt at the linguistic precision 
proper to such a treatise. Whatever of exception is to 
be made in regard to the Pauline epistles, particularly 
the Epistle to the Romans, no part of the Bible is put, 
or was intended to be put, in the terms of trained 
scholarship. Its words are for all men — for the illiter- 
ate and the wise, for sages and the common people; 
but more particularly for those who heard Jesus with 
special gladness, while it was and is the instructor of 
the wise as no other book or series of books has ever 
been, addressing them in terms and tones of special 
superiority and authority. Excepting certain parts of 
the Pauline epistles and statements that are distinc- 
tively historical, the Biblical style is grandly figurative 
and poetical. Discarding the form and the intent of 
the manual, its instructions and exhortations and 
illuminations are given in events, in biography, alle- 
gory, parable, and often in startling oriental metaphor. 
Of the persons selected of God as mediums for the 
communication of his will and purposes, upon whom 
his spirit was poured in exceptional measure, it may be 
doubted if any of them could have given a definition 
of the word " revelation." They spoke as the spirit 
moved them to utterance, probably without any intro- 
spective thought or questioning as to the distinctive- 
ness of the process. Their words and often their man- 
ner were those of the common people of their time 
and place. This great peculiarity on the part of men 
who affected to be religious teachers, was the occasion 
of Greek contempt — to Attic and Corinthian scholars 
it was foolishness; under divine guidance it was the 
weak things of the world confounding the wise. 



INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. 191 

The general statement of Biblical revelation as in- 
clusive of an act and contents gives occasion for dis- 
crimination or differentiation in respect to at least four 
particulars. They, however, so interlace, mutually in- 
volve each the other, that some verbal repetition must 
be pardoned — may well be, if there is any good de- 
gree of success in making clear and tangible to 
thought the distinctive quality of each of the several 
definitions: 

I. First of all it is to be noted that the essence of 
revelation, as we have it in the Scriptures must not be 
confounded with its incidents. Recent discussions in 
various forms of literature dwell upon the vital differ- 
ence between "kernel" and "shell," "substance" and 
"envelope," "thought" and the "dress" of thought. 
In some instances, particularly with those whose temper 
is iconoclastic, who have a keener relish for the de- 
structive than for the constructive, it will be iterated 
and reiterated that the envelope has but superficial im- 
portance, and may be discarded without peril to the 
essential contents. This is shallow reasoning. It is 
contrary to nature, for it is in nature that, until the har- 
vest, kernel and shell must grow together, and that dur- 
ing the period of this mutual growth the attention of 
the husbandman must be almost exclusively devoted 
to the " envelope." In no small proportion of cases 
there is no occasion for a mechanical or arbitrary sep- 
arating of the kernel from its encasement. The ripen- 
ing bean itself bursts, and even drops from the pod. 
The iconoclasm of nature is never forced, cannot be 
forced. It makes no vehement attack upon the en- 
velope; this of itself often steps aside as its mission is 
fulfilled. 



192 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

The distinction, however, between the substance and 
the incidental accomplishments of Biblical revelation 
is of profound importance. It is indicated by the oft- 
made distinction: "The Bible as a revelation and as 
' containing ' one." It marks the difference between 
the spiritual truths, and the setting of these truths in 
events, in personal experiences, in social customs, in an 
historic unfolding. Let the " standard of measure- 
ment " be restated; the essentials of revelation cannot 
be passed on from one mind to another; always pres- 
ent, they are seen, simply seen, in the mood of inspira- 
tion. But facts — whether in events, historic associa- 
tions or local descriptions- — are of a totally different 
character. These may be "tossed and caught," may 
pass on by "deed of conveyance" duly signed and 
attested. Hence, all Biblical facts that attest a divine 
supervision — and of such there are many — may be con- 
veyed by "word of mouth." The substance does indeed 
need the envelope, but is not it. Each has vital value 
in its order and place, but neither is the other. The 
Bible as a "literary record of inspiration" is a transcript 
in popular language of divine things spiritually discerned. 
If Paul and John were spiritually inspired and to 
such a degree and upon such matter that their inspira- 
tion had a distinctive quality — as has been maintained 
in preceding paragraphs — they had in their rapt moods 
visions, the reality of which they henceforth knew, but 
the nature of which, the varied contents of which, they 
might not, in secular moods, have been able to analyze 
or define. 

II. If now revelation considered as an act is vision, 
must not the persons to whom its contents were made 
known, are yet being made known, share with prophets 
and apostles in the same inspiration? It must be said 



INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. 193 

that the question is a proper one and merits an answer. 

Without doubt we can fully know the mind of 
Christ only as in all spiritual things we grow up into 
him as our head — none the less, a smaller talent can ap- 
preciate a greater. Lesser minds than Plato may com- 
prehend and practically apply Plato. The divine mind 
has meaning and application for all who bear in any 
degree, no matter how small, the divine image; it has 
meaning for savage and peasant as well as for sages 
and scholars. Christianity would, indeed, be a most 
impracticable matter on the supposition that it is either 
wholly useless or else wholly operative. In fact, be- 
tween these two extremes it is felt, it is a power, it pro- 
duces results, all the way. It is, therefore, not indis- 
pensable that one in order to understand an apostle 
must be an apostle. The accomplished and thorough 
critic, intensely appreciative of the work upon which 
he applies his testing analysis, may be wholly incap- 
able of producing its equal, or anything that even ap- 
proximates its excellence. In fact, a critic may have 
full appreciation of a statue, a painting or a poem, and 
yet his soul be perplexed with the question: "How 
could the master have created a thing so wonderful, 
so grand?" 

III. It is axiomatic in current Bibical criticism that 
revelation is progressive. It is this in at least two re- 
gards, and "clear ideas" require that the line between 
them shall be distinctly drawn. 

1. There is progress in the particular of the 
gradual unfolding of human intelligence. The same 
statement, and this a truth in every regard, makes one 
impression on the mind of a Hottentot, and a very 
different one on the mind of an Oxford instructor. On 
the supposition that the Bible is of uniform intellectuel, 



194 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

ethical and spiritual quality all the way from Genesis 
to Revelation — a position, however, which very few in 
this age would have the hardihood to assume — it would 
in effect be one book to those who dwelt in tents in the 
patriarchal epoch, another book to those who con- 
stituted Israel and framed the Pentateuch, yet another 
to those who appreciated Isaiah and Micah, and yet 
dissimilar and far more exalted to those who heard the 
word of power in the sermon on the mount and the 
word of logic in the Epistle to the Romans. 

2. There is progress in the very different partic- 
ular that the Bible is epochal in its contents, adapting 
its statements, its codes, its rituals, to the mental and 
moral estate of the people as these change in the ad- 
vancement of society. In this regard mankind in its 
entirety has an unfolding analogous to the experience 
of the individual in the passage from childhood to 
youth, from youth to manhood, from manhood to ma- 
turity. To the child it speaks as to a child, but when 
the child becomes a man, mature statements take the 
place of the things proper and expedient to be said 
to children. Doubtless many things said to chil- 
dren in the earliest years of their instruction, and 
many things said to them while sitting on college 
benches, would seem to be contradictory to a super- 
ficial mind, a mind incapable of taking into account 
the difference alike in matter and manner between the 
requirements of untaught youth and those which come 
after a substantial advance in wisdom and discipline. 

IV. Finally, revelation is often a storage for later 
use. The literary record, therefore, holds in verbal 
formulas and biographical examples, matters which for 
certain minds may be a dead-letter to-day, yet a living 
fountain to-morrow. In regions where agriculture de- 



INSPIRATION AND REVELATION. 195 

pends upon irrigation, the full reservoirs may seem use- 
less, a pure waste, in the season of snow and frost. 
What are they when July and August heats parch the 
earth and threaten at their roots, corn, flower and 
shrub? A remark often made is in these terms: "That 
can be no revelation to me which I do not understand." 
The remark is based upon a fractional part of the 
meaning of the word. It does not take into account 
the incipient faculty which, when unfolded, may make 
every way intelligible what in the immediate present 
is but a form of words. In fact, the highest wisdom 
may for the hour be occult. It simply bides its time 
when the now hidden things shall be brought into the 
clear light. 

There can, of course, be no literary "storage" of 
religious truth for any creature not endowed with the 
religious sense; for such there neither is, nor ever can 
be, a Biblical revelation. The reservoir will never fer- 
tilize a bed of rock. Irrigation implies the possibility 
of responsiveness in the soil. It is true that passages 
from the sermon on the mount, spoken in the ear of a 
babe, may make no other impression than would follow 
if spoken in the ear of a pet spaniel. Yet it is a revela- 
tion in the one case, in that there is a latent faculty for 
its apprehension, while in the other case it never can 
be other than meaningless vocalization. The words: 
"I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that 
thou didst hide these things from the wise and pru- 
dent, and didst reveal them unto babes," (Matt, xi: 25), 
doubtless had an intended reference to the disciples; 
yet, they would have been pertinent had they been 
spoken for infants in their cradles. The difference be- 
tween "that which I do not understand," and "that 

which I can never understand," — the declarations hav- 
14 



196 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

ing reference to the contents of revelation — is pro- 
found. 

This discussion of the two-fold subject of inspir- 
ation and revelation was undertaken in the conviction 
that the subject needed elucidation in two regards— 
the rescuing it from the toils of definitions so generic 
that its specific character was lost sight of; and furth- 
er, that the whole matter needed a definite and in- 
telligible adjustment to the laws of thought and of 
spiritual intuition. The essay which here closes will 
have utility, will render needful service, to the extent 
in which its definitions and statements further the com- 
prehensive end thus outlined. 

Read in Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept 13. 



XIII. 

THE UNIVERSALIST IDEA OF SALVA- 
TION. 



BY CHARLES H. EATON, D. D. 



ANSELM, the saintly Archbishop of Canterbury, 
anticipated the Universalist idea of salvation when 
he said, "I would rather be in hell without a fault than in 
heaven with one." The modern conception of salva- 
tion does not emphasize locality but character. It does 
not deal with place and time but with qualities of mind 
and heart that are independent of place and time. In 
other words, salvation is a state-and a process. As a 
state it involves conviction of sin, a clear conscious- 
ness that we are out of harmony with the moral universe 
of which we are a part, and the voluntary consecration 
of our lives to obedience of the divine law. This con- 
secration to a higher life is preceded by penitence for 
a sinful past which serves as the motive to reformation. 
In an incomplete sense it is true, that, when the sinful 
break with past and turn toward the divine life, that is, 
"are converted," they are saved. But this conversion 
is by no means the whole of salvation. It is but the 



193 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

first step in an eternal movement. Salvation is a pro- 
cess as well as a state. It is a process because it is a 
growth; — beginning with the first cry for knowledge 
and right, but complete only when man becomes "per- 
fect as his Father, who is in heaven, is perfect." Sal- 
vation in the Christian sense is not so much rescue from 
something outside ourselves as escape from something 
within ourselves. Its method is not mechanic but 
dynamic. It is not the successful working out of a 
system, but the creation of a new personality. 

In the earlier view the sequences (supposed) of sin 
held the chief place; now our attention is drawn to the 
sin itself. We have, to a considerable extent, accom- 
plished what the woman of Alexandria undertook to 
do when she went through the streets of the ancient 
city, bearing in one hand a burning torch and in the 
other a leathern bottle of water, crying to the multitude 
that with the water she would quench the flames of 
hell and with the torch set fire to heaven, so that the 
people should cease to do evil merely from fear of 
punishment, and not do good for the sake of reward. 
We have learned that the only really valuable service is 
that which springs from unselfish love. Hell is a 
spiritual and personal fact. It has no objective exist- 
ence. Heaven is a state rather than a locality. The 
soul is organized for truth and love. So long as it fails 
to reach the end of its being, so long there is discord, 
pain. Salvation is getting into our true life by recog- 
nizing our allegiance to God as He is revealed in nature 
and the Bible. One of the chief characteristics of sal- 
vation is faith; faith in God and man; in God's goodness 
and man's moral capacity; faith in the power of truth 
and the forward movement of humanity. But the 
dominant force in the saved life is love — love for God 



NATURE OF SALVATION. igu 

as the ruler of the universe and the Father of. mankind, 
and love for man as a member of a universal brother- 
hood, who, in spite of all moral deformity, wears the 
seal of divine sonship. In the older view, salvation 
was the appropriation of a divine satisfaction for sin. 
Man under the bondage of inherited sin is " totally dis- 
abled and made opposite to all good and inclined to 
all evil." By the fall of Adam his nature has been so 
changed that his will is enslaved and he can do nothing 
pleasing to God. He is the passive subject of divine 
grace or wrath. There is, perhaps, no truth of modern 
times more generally accepted than that of heredity, so 
far as tendencies of life are concerned. But the in- 
heritance of moral reponsibility for the deeds of a past 
in which we have had no conscious existence is absurd. 
I may be affected by the wrong doing of the first 
man and woman, for there is a very real sense in which 
the "sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto 
the third and fourth generations," but I am in no sense 
accountable for their action. Each man is born with 
freedom (limited), and must stand before the judgment 
of God as revealed in law, responsible for his own acts 
alone. Every man comes into his own paradise, and 
sin committed drives him out into the world, while the 
flaming sword of violated law flashes between him and 
his innocence. But one of the best days for humanity 
was when Eve plucked and ate the apple from the tree 
of knowledge. It was the beginning of virtue, and 
virtue is certainly better than innocence. In a very 
true sense the fall of Adam " was a fall upwards." It 
was the birthday of civilization. The Universalist 
emphatically denies the total depravity of the soul. 
Humanity may be in ruins, but the ruins are noble and 
still retain the lines of strength and beauty and the 



200 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

possibility of reconstruction. To use a more fitting 
comparison, since man's will is not inert but active in 
the work of salvation, the human soul is like the hermit 
who locks himself in a cell where there are darkness 
and disease and death, but retains the key by which he 
may open the door and walk into sunshine and life. 
There are none who have fallen so low that con- 
science ceases to upbraid. There is no bondage to evil 
that completely destroys the power of choice. There 
is no degrading influence of passion that can altogether 
kill love or the desire for nobler attainment. One of the 
chief characteristics of Christ's teaching was the in- 
estimable worth of man — not man in the abstract but 
man in the concrete. To Christ no terms are too 
extravagant to express the feeling of God to man. The 
measure of man's worth is found alone in the statement 
that God "so loved the world that He sent his only 
begotten Son" to die on the cross that it might be 
saved. Mean in attainment, splendid in prophecy is 
the lowliest peasant, the most insignificant and craftiest 
publican of Capernaum or Jerusalem. At Christ's 
teaching, childhood became sacred, the symbol and 
basis of his kingdom. The soil of passion became 
holy ground because of the latent purity of the fallen 
woman. The publicans and sinners, whom priests and 
Pharisees visited with scorn and stones of death, Christ 
took into his bosom warming them into penitence and 
leading them to the service of love. There is nothing 
more certainly taught in the New Testament than the 
high estimate God puts upon every son and daughter 
whom he has created. Man is great because he is di- 
vine. No force of time, no evil agency within or with- 
out, can effectually efface the likeness to God in the hu- 
man heart nor quench the energy to do. Though man 



Nature of salvation. 201 

may go far from the Father's house and wasting his 
spiritual inheritance, feed on husks among the swine, 
yet he cannot altogether forget the home from which 
he came, nor can he so far lose himself, that under the 
shock of punishment, or at the call of persuasive love, 
he cannot come to himself and turn his steps toward it 
again. The picture of man's moral condition, drawn 
by a prominent theologian, which represents him as a 
"corpse festering in the grave" is as false to the Gospel 
teaching as it is abhorrent to enlightened common 
sense. The fetters of sin are like the silken cords 
woven for Fenrir of the northern mythology. They 
bend and writhe and hold as flax and iron cannot do. 
But unlike the fabled cords, there is one imperial force 
that can break them. It is the will of man nurtured and 
fired by the power of God. Salvation is indeed of 
grace. It is not earned in the sense that man can pay 
the price of so great a gift. But it is not thrust upon 
him. It cannot be received without an effort of the 
will and that intense and constant. And it is also true 
that no will can become so dead that it may not be 
roused to ask, to seek, to find. 

The Universalist's idea of salvation also affirms that 
salvation is universal. This is what gives him his dis- 
tinctive name and his position among those who have 
a really essential truth to proclaim. Partial salvation 
to the Universalist is the denial both of the teaching of 
revelation and reason. A right definition of grace 
makes it include all the sons and daughters of God. 
The process of salvation, begun with the first human 
being on the earth, will be continued into the future life 
until all shall be brought to the knowledge of the truth. 
At last, when love is regnant in all hearts, salvation will 
be complete. The gift of salvation is not confined to 



202 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

any one period in the history of the world nor to a 
favored people or nation. To construct a scheme of 
salvation that shall work only with the smallest minority 
of the human race were to do a thing impossible to a 
divine being. The methods of salvation are worked 
out by many teachers, pagan as well as Christian. 
Wherever character-building is going on, there salvation 
is under way. Christianity is not a cunningly devised 
and mechanical scheme by which the knaves of the 
Christian era are saved and the philosophers and saints 
of the heathen world eternally condemned. Wherever 
there is life there is God. Wherever God is, there the 
processes of salvation are under way. To declare that 
God burns in his rage against the heathen and merci- 
lessly turns them into hell because, not knowing him as 
He is revealed in Christ, they have failed to obey him, is 
an impeachment of his justice and a denial of his love. 
By his very nature, by the creative flat, man everywhere 
must be open to the breathings of the Holy Spirit. God 
speaks in different degrees of power, but as man is 
prepared to receive — to Moses on Sinai and Zoroaster 
in the valley of Persia, to the prophets of India and 
Palestine, to priests and people, to the learned and the 
simple — now, as always, God in the soul, He must make 
himself known. To limit revelation to the Bible of the 
Christian is to finally destroy religion. It follows then 
that to limit salvation to those who have known Jesus 
is to take God out of salvation. Jesus saves because he 
is the truth of God coming into relation with the will 
of man and giving birth to character. But the truth of 
God is confined to no one teacher, however exalted he 
may be, and character based upon divine truth, is found 
among all peoples and is the only witness and limit of 
salvation. 



NATURE OF SALVATION. 20^ 

Salvation, the Universalist declares, is not confined 
to this life. Repentance is the door of salvation. Re- 
pentance, however, is possible on this or the other side 
of the line of death. Death has no significance what- 
ever so far as the essential processes of salvation are 
concerned. The resurrection must bring a clearer 
vision, a keener sensitiveness to the divine approval or 
disapproval. Standing in the light of the new day, our 
sins will be seen in their true relations. • Interpretations 
will be given of the struggles, the victories and defeats 
of life. But it is true in a sense that "as death leaves 
us so the resurrection will find us." Passing the narrow 
line which separates life and death, our thought, affec- 
tion and will, will remain the same; the character we have 
formed will undergo no change. As we lay down the 
burdens of earth, we take up the obligations of heaven. 
Relieved of the body of flesh, its weaknesses and the 
temptations that inhere in it, but, notwithstanding, the 
same human beings that walked the ways of earth. 
Not only does the soul remain the same, subject to the 
impulses, the restraints, the hopes and opportunities of 
the law of God, but everywhere in this life and every 
other life, we are under the dominion of the same power 
and love. Wherever and whenever a soul turns to God, 
forgiveness and help will be granted. The sun shines 
at one end of the covered bridge we call death. Does 
it not shine at the other end as well? The love of God 
which has sent prophets, teachers and saviours to the 
world from the beginning, the divine patience that 
believes and works and waits though men stone and 
kill his messengers, and at last crucify his beloved Son, 
cannot, it is believed, change so vitally at the moment 
of death. There can be no salvation without repentance. 
But there is no reason in philosophy or revelation for 



204 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

supposing that the opportunity to repent is confined to 
the short period of earthly life. On the contrary, there 
is every reason for believing that God will yearn over 
his children until he awakens in them an answering 
affection. He will persuade and punish in the future 
life as in this until the last sinner gropes his way from 
"outer darkness into day." 

Read the problem of sin in the light of the general 
teaching of the New Testament as to the nature and 
character of God and universal salvation seems certain. 
Christ's position and promises point to universal hope. 
It has come to be the belief of the most intelligent, 
as well as devout believers, that there is no pos- 
sible justification of the divine government on any 
other theory. A perfect God implies a perfect crea- 
tion, not as seen in process, perhaps, but in final pro- 
duct. The salvation of one soul involves the salvation 
of all. The salvation of the mass of humanity would 
not be possible without the salvation of each. The 
solidarity of the race is such that when one member 
suffers all members suffer with it. This must be as 
true in the glory of heaven as among the shadows of 
earth. To represent God as gloating over the suffer- 
ings of the damned, or rejoicing in an infinite auto-da-fe 
is to call in question his benevolence. To picture him 
standing hopelessly and helplessly before triumphant 
sin is to deny his power. To describe him as sitting on 
his throne surrounded by a minority of the children he 
has created, and Satan as laughing with savage glee, sur- 
rounded by the great majority of the souls of men, is to 
dethrone him altogether and place the divine sceptre 
in the hands of the devil. 

No such theory of the universe is possible. God 
created the world. He never will permit it to swing 



NATURE OF SALVATION. 20$ 

so far on the tangent of evil that he cannot bring it 
back again. He confers free-will upon man. But this 
liberty has well marked limits. To give man power to 
forever thwart the divine will were to change order to 
chaos and unhinge the world from its divine bearings. 
The only representation commended by reason and 
taught by revelation, the only motive to repentance 
and reformation that can prove sufficient in this and 
every other state, is found in the belief that "good will 
be the final goal of ill." That the age tends to this 
conception of the issue of the struggle between good 
and evil is seen in the constant changes going on in 
the theological world as to doctrine and fellowship. 
Even the Roman Catholic church, the most conserva- 
tive of Christian bodies, is debating whether there be no 
"happiness in hell." The placing of the article in the 
"Index Expurgatorius" does not in any way change the 
opinions of the devout thinkers in that communion. 
The growth of wiser criticism, the softening of the man- 
ners and the customs of civilization, have united in mak- 
ing it almost impossible for the thoughtful to accept 
the old doctrine of endless punishment. First, the tears 
of pity fell upon the flames of hell. Then reason 
quenched them and battered down the walls of the 
eternal dungeon. Then love and aspiration, quickened 
by Christ, unveiled the face of an angry judge to find that 
of a compassionate Father. First there was the scurry- 
ing of the vanguard of the armies of men into the city 
of refuge. Now the closed doors open once more and 
will remain open night and day till the last straggler 
in the rear drags himself to the place of victory and 
rest. 

Universalism then affirms the complete triumph of 
good over evil. It finds the good tidings of the Gos- 



206 UN1VERSALIST CONGRESS. 

pel in the belief it gives that God will save to the ut- 
termost; that while every sin is inexorably punished, 
since the revelation of cause and effect is inevitable 
and eternal, the tendency of nature is to cure, not kill, 
and in the certain issue of the conflict between sin and 
virtue, virtue will be victorious and God will wipe all 
tears from all eyes as He swings a moral universe into 
the orbit of order and righteousness. 

The test of salvation is easily understood and ap- 
plied. No uncertainty exists in the Universalist view 
such as is displayed by those who accept the doctrines 
of election and predestination. The keenest mental 
suffering has been experienced by those who feared 
they might be in danger of eternal torment. Arbitrary 
assignment to heaven or hell, by an unknown and un- 
knowable power, for such God must be if this doctrine 
be true, gives rise to uncertainty and despondency. Pa- 
tient, reverent and loving men and women, in almost 
every way Christlike, through the acceptance of me- 
chanical notions of salvation and its methods, have 
found the Gospel not a source of joy but of deepest 
misery. Many have become confused, anxious, even 
insane, on the subject of religion. Some of those who 
have been most conspicuous in the world of literature 
have lived under the dread of endless punishment un- 
til incapacitated for a healthy religion. 

The test of salvation is simple and effective. We 
are not compelled to throw ourselves into the future. 
We are to ask plain and every-day questions: What is 
a man's speech? Is it honest and reverent? What 
are his conduct and spirit? The measure of worth is 
evident. "By their fruits ye shall know them." We 
are not saved until we are living good lives. The ex- 
tent of our salvation is the extent of our virtue, our 



NATURE OF SALVATION. 20; 

faith and our love. We are not living good lives be- 
cause we are saved, but we are saved because we are 
living good lives. It is not that we are able to be vir- 
tuous because in some mysterious way the blood of 
Christ has cleansed us from sin. But because our sense 
of right, our love of virtue, makes it no longer possible 
for us to crucify Christ by the commission of sin. We 
do not need to wait for any great day of assize. Every 
day is a judgment day. With the establishment of 
the Gospel began the higher obligation and the se- 
verer judgment which accompany the complete reve- 
lation. An increase of knowledge involves a deeper 
responsibility. There may be crises in the moral ex- 
perience. But there can be nothing truer than that 
every day is a judgment day, and that the moral 
register is made in the living soul every moment of con- 
scious existence. The fires of hell burn not beyond 
the horizon of life more than in depraved and sinning 
hearts on our right hand and our left. The light of 
heaven may shine on us here as certainly as when we 
stand by the Eternal Throne. 

What is the relation of Christ to this salvation? 
Many theories have been held as to the work of Christ 
in salvation. But they may all be reduced to two 
distinctive ones, the sacrificial and the moral. The 
sacrificial includes all the doctrines, and they are 
numerous, of the vicarious atonement of Christ. Some- 
times it is supposed that Christ has assumed the guilt 
and the punishment of man and at other times that he 
has borne his punishment only. But whatever the view, 
it is always taught that God is to be reconciled to man 
by the sacrifice of Christ and that by his death we are 
justified. The Universalist denies all these conclusions 
of system builders. He enforces the moral vieWo This 



208 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

rejects the idea of the wrath of God and affirms his 
fatherly love. It declares the doctrine of vicarious 
atonement irrational in theory, and, as the universe is 
organized, impossible of execution. It removes the 
face of an angry judge and put in its place the face of 
a judicial Father. Christ, says Universalism, is the mani- 
festation of God, the express image of the divine glory. 
Jesus Christ exhibits in his life and character both the 
state and process of salvation. The cross, though not 
expiation for sin, in a very real sense, is the expression 
of God's abhorrence of sin as well as the revelation of 
his love for man. Jesus was human like ourselves, subject 
to the same temptations, disappointments and sorrows. 
But by the exercise of his will and by reliance upon 
God, he was able to win a victory over all. He lays 
down the principles of the divine life, provides an ex- 
ample for imitation, and what is even more important, 
supplies the necessary motive and impulse. He ex- 
hibits in his life complete harmony of the human and 
the divine and teaches us how we may at the same time 
live in peace with God and in helpful and happy rela- 
tions with our fellows. He reconciled the demands of 
time and eternity and in the midst of the doubts and 
confusions of life, shows how we may nourish an abid- 
ing hope and create a symmetrical character. 

But Christ's power as a Saviour does not end with the 
historic and ethical element. In the process of salva- 
tion there is possible for every soul the personal com- 
munion which Christ gave to his disciples. There was 
something in their Master that eluded definition. He 
was greater than anything he ever said or did. And 
when in personal contact with him their power to over- 
come was vastly increased. Under the influence of his 
spirit, vision grew clearer, will stronger, hearts more 



NATURE OF SALVATION. 200. 

restful. The same power he gives to his disciples in all 
times. To the tempted, the lonely, to those who seek 
for the light, to those who battle with self and with 
evil, Christ comes as a personal helper and friend. It 
may be impossible to completely analyze this relation 
which exists between Jesus and his followers, but all 
those who have had any deep experience in the Chris 
tian life feel its reality and power. The humblest and 
most exalted have discovered that in Christ they find 
necessary guidance and inspiration. For all sorts and 
conditions of men the Son of God and the Son of Man 
has unbounded sympathy. Now, as in the ancient times 
he is moved by an irresistible impulse to preach the 
Gos*pel of the kingdom to the poor, to heal the broken 
hearted, to bring deliverance to the captive and re- 
covery of sight to the blind. He confounds error by 
truth in the nineteenth century as in the first. At his 
touch hate is turned to love, unrest to rest, and unbelief 
to a deep and abiding faith. This love of Christ, which 
floods like the tide his soul, is limited to no time or 
place. It is confined to no favored people. It seeks 
the worshipper at the altar of Buddha as well as the 
one who bows before the throne of Jehovah. It ex- 
presses itself in the lofty hymns of the Vedas. It 
wings with power the maxims of Confucius. It burns 
in the high places of Schirazand Mecca and adds force 
and value to the moralities of Solomon and Aurelius. 
Wherever, indeed, in this world or any other, under 
one name or another, a sinner turns in disgust from his 
sin; wherever and whenever trembling lips are lifted in 
prayer for help, Christ responds with effective aid. 
Death and the grave can raise no barrier between the 
souls of the outcast and the saving grace of Christ. It 
is to the living and present Christ to which we are, 



210 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

directed in the Gospel and the epistles. He lives for- 
evermore mighty to save. "He shall reign until he has 
put all things under his feet." And all this is true be- 
cause Jesus Christ is the vehicle of the divine love that 
must of necessity penetrate all parts of the universe, 
breathe in all prayers, sing in all songs, speak in all 
revelations, nerve the arms and inspire the hearts of all 
saviours of men in every country and every time. 

This conception of Christ in his relation to salvation 
lifts him above all mere mechanics of religion and 
makes him the personal Saviour of each soul through 
the impartation of the divine love of which he is the 
expression and the medium Salvation, then, in the 
Universalist view, is character based upon eternal 
principles of right. While it is denied to no lover of 
truth and righteousness, and is won. where the name of 
Christ has never been heard, it is most completely 
realized through the instruction, example and inspira- 
tion of Christ. Penitence is its mete; perfection, its 
goal. It can alone be realized when it is universal. In 
the far-off, but coming time, the divine love will touch 
into life and love every created being. 

Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 13. 



XIV. 
THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 



BY REV. MASSENA GOODRICH. 



HIGHER criticism pre-supposes a lower criticism. 
The latter deals chiefly with the text of the 
Scriptures. The Jews for ages took great pains with 
the books of the Old Testament, and Christian scholars 
have spent much time in obtaining a reliable text of the 
New Testament. Westcott and Hort think indeed 
that the edition of the New Testment which they com- 
piled reproduces with entire accuracy fifty-nine out of 
every sixty words that the apostles penned. If the 
classical scholar could claim that an equal proportion 
of the words that Demosthenes thundered, or Xenophon 
or Thucydides wrote, is supplied in any edition of the 
speeches of the one, or the histories of the other, would 
it not be a remarkable fact? 

The higher criticism takes a step farther. Recol- 
lecting that there are sixty-five different books in the 
Bible, written by forty or fifty different authors, it in- 
quires whether these books were actually written by 
the persons to whom they are ascribed. At what time 
indeed were they composed? To whom were they ad- 

15 



212 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

dressed? What were the circumstances of the writers 
and of the people to whom they wrote? Important 
questions these; and if asked in a reverent spirit and 
answered in an ingenuous manner, the honor of God and 
the welfare of souls, will not be imperiled. Faith will 
be likely to be fostered, devotion deepened, and god- 
liness promoted. 

Such criticism must not, however, be captious. It 
has to encounter in the outset a presumption. What 
preoccupies the ground, specially if it has come down 
from gray antiquity, is not ruthlessly to be displaced. 
It is not a violent assumption that devout and intelli- 
gent scholars had some reason for their regard for cer- 
tain books. They were aware of apparent difficulties 
in narratives and would not have let them remain if 
the evidence in their favor had not seemed overwhelm- 
ing. Further than this, it is not lightly to be assumed 
that the rank and file of the Jews or the early Chris- 
tians lacked shrewdness. That the Jews were not over 
credulous their whole history proves. Again and again 
were they taxed by the prophets with wilfulness and 
unbelief. That the early Christians, oft menaced with 
deadly persecution, would have demanded conclu- 
sive proof of the genuineness of the books they re- 
ceived, is a fair conclusion. The fact then that the Jews 
from a very early time received the Old Testament, as 
containing a revelation from God, is a presumption in its 
favor. That the Christians too, received from an early 
time the four Gospels and the balance of the New Testa- 
ment, is weighty evidence in their favor. 

If it is averred that both these classes were mis- 
taken in these matters, the burden of proof rests on 
those who question the integrity or authority of Holy 
Writ. The Scriptures hold the ground till their genu- 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 213 

ineness is fairly disproved. Mere gainsayal is not argu- 
ment. Strong reasons must be given for reversing the 
judgment of our predecessors. The present generation 
has not a monopoly of wisdom. There were intellec- 
tual giants sometimes in former ages. In so far as the 
higher criticism bases its conclusions on the impossi- 
bility of miracles, it assumes what no man is bound to 
concede. God is in nature and in providence, and the 
tokens of His might are so manifest in heaven above 
and earth beneath, that no man can rightly undertake to 
set limits to his power. If he has seen at any time 
that a wondrous display of his energy will rebuke hu- 
man arrogance or conceit, and wring from the tongue 
the ejaculation, "My Lord and my God," it may be a 
sufficient reason for his baring his arm. 

In the outset the higher criticism busies itself with 
the Pentateuch. As the books comprehended under 
that designation have been regarded as the earliest 
books of the Old Testament, their genuineness has been 
brought in question. As the book of Genesis deals 
with some matters whereof Moses, its reputed author, 
could not have had personal knowledge, its authority 
has been impugned. It has been alleged, indeed, that 
it was written ages after the Hebrew leader passed 
away, and is a compilation from ancient legends or 
documents, woven into a treatise by nobody knows 
who. Now that it contains traditions or extracts from 
ancient documents can be safely admitted. The He- 
brews and their ancestors manifestly kept genealogical 
records. That with these they related facts which had 
happened anterior to their day, as well as occurences 
in their own experience, no sensible man need question, 
and that Moses used some of these registers in compos- 
ing his first book is perfectly credible. 



214 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

The book shows, however, by its majestic simplic- 
ity, its artlessness, and by its very style, that it was com- 
posed by a single author, and that he was a man of de- 
vout spirit, masterly intellect, and of great research. 
The treatise has unity. It is a sublime work, manifestly 
written by a man on whom God had richly poured out his 
Spirit. There is a grandeur, a comprehensiveness in 
the book, that makes it unique. But if any school of 
critics undertake to say that there are in the sacerdotal 
code of the next three books of the Pentateuch things 
that show a revision subsequent to the days of Moses. 
this may be safely granted. Circumstances changed in 
the condition of the Hebrew nation. While under the 
special leadership of Moses, they were a race of nomads. 
But when after his death they entered the land of prom- 
ise, and became a stable nation, regulations that sufficed 
for a vast horde of Arabs might well give place to dif- 
ferent rules. Hence the possibility of a revision of 
codes. 

So much any ingenuous man may properly con- 
cede. A sound critic may well contend, however, that 
the book of Deuteronomy is a book actually written by 
Moses. There is a consistent use of the first person in. 
the narrative. "At the time Jehovah said me." Only 
the account of the law-giver's death is necessarily im- 
puted to a later hand. In all the archaeological facts' 
and historic narrations in the Pentateuch, indeed, it is 
impossible to conceive of a writer's showing such pre- 
cise knowledge of the land of the Nile, as it was in the 
days of the Pharaohs, unless he lived in the time of the 
Exodus. Modern exploration is proving too that the 
writer of the Pentateuch had a knowledge of the 
desert between Egypt and Palestine which could only 
have been obtained by marching over its trackless waste 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 21$ 

• — a knowledge that no Hebrew coming from Babylonian 
exile, nine hundred or a thousand years after, could 
possess. Indeed, there seems reason to believe that 
the Jews of subsequent centuries inherited so tradi- 
tional a horror for Horeb and its solemn defiles that no 
one of them for ages visited the mount of God save the 
Prophet Elijah. 

The literary characteristics of the Pentateuch show 
its early composition. Of course it were rash to say 
that no reader of the majestic Hebrew of that series of 
books can fail to be convinced of their unity; but one 
can safely say that there is a charm in the original of 
those records which makes one affirm, the writer of 
these narratives must habitually have walked with God. 
He speaks as if he had listened to Jehovah's audible 
words. There is a breadth and scholarship in the con- 
ception and even the words of the writer which 
strengthen the belief that he was versed in all the wis- 
dom of the Egyptians. Nay, he is marked by a sub- 
limity of thought, a positiveness of conviction of unseen 
realities, which he could best have gained from per- 
sonal intercourse with Jehovah on the summit of 
Sinai. The expressions he utters reminds us of a native 
of Egypt, and of a man who had breathed during his 
adult life the free air of the desert, rather than of an 
exile just returned to Palestine from Mesopotamia. 

On the strength of internal evidence more indeed 
could be said in confirmation of the fact that the Pen- 
tateuch, with the qualifications mentioned, was really 
the work of Moses. A passing remark on the other 
book of the Hexateuch may be proffered. In the judg- 
ment of scholars with whom Hebrew is vernacular this 
book is one of the most ancient Jewish compositions. 
And the fact that Joshua so often calls the attention of 



216 Universalis? congress. 

his hearers, as Moses had done, to incidents in their 
personal experience in confirmation of his words, 
shows an ingenuousness that adds to the credibility of 
his narrative. "For I speak not with your children, 
who have not known, and who have not seen the chas- 
tisement of Jehovah, your God, his greatness, his mighty 
hand, and his outstretched arm; * * * but your 
eyes have seen all the great work of Jehovah which he 
did;" said the Jewish law-giver; and Joshua makes a 
similar appeal. Only contemporaries would have ac- 
knowledged the pertinency of such language. If the 
Jews of eight or nine centuries after had been the first 
to hear such an appeal, would they not have asked, 
Why were not these records known to our fathers and 
rehearsed by them to us from our earliest childhood? 

Space is not allowed in this brief essay for extend- 
ed remarks on any of the other books of the Old Testa- 
ment. Suffice it to say that they refer again and again 
to the law as a well known series of statutes The nine- 
teenth psalm strikes the keynote of many an utterance: 
"The law of Jehovah is perfect, converting the soul. , ' 
The word "thorah," with prefixes or suffixes, or with 
Jehovah, Elohim, or Moses connected with it, occurs in 
the Hebrew Bible no less than two hundred and forty- 
six times. The frequent recurrence of this. word in the 
historical books, in Prophets from Amos to Malachi, in 
the Psalms, in Proverbs, and in Job, is a presumption 
that something real and authoritative must have existed 
from a very early date. In many of the books indeed, 
alleged to be written after the age of Joshua or of David, 
the salient facts as to the origin of the Hebrew race, 
their voluntary removal from the land of Canaan, their 
exodus from Egypt, the giving of the law on Sinai, and 
the mighty help afforded by Jehovah, to his chosen 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 21 f 

people in the desert, and in the conquest of Palestine, 
which are narrated in the Pentateuch, are mentioned as 
facts with which the nation is familiar. They form the 
theme of exultant psalms, or the grounds of earnest ex- 
postulation and warning. 

On literary grounds the skillful Hebrew scholar af- 
firms that the Pentateuch was the earliest composition 
of the Old Testament. Philologists speak of the golden 
age and the silver age of the Hebrew literature. The 
exiles returning from the Babylonian captivity were 
incapable of writing volumes so sublime as Moses 
penned. But passing from this matter it may be ob- 
served that some critics disparage a part of the pro- 
phecy of Isaiah. They aver that not all that is included 
in the writings of the son of Amoz was actually com- 
posed by him. Very welL If it can be clearly shown 
that the last twenty-six chapters of that prophecy were 
written by an inferior poet, the first forty chapters re- 
main unimpeached. They challenge admiration by 
their sublimity and grandeur. They are marked by 
poetic glow, by stirring imagery and vivid personifica- 
tions. The poet utters thoughts that breathe in words 
that burn. A live coal from the altar of Jehovah touched 
his lips, and his words ring across the gulf of centuries. 
If a second Isaiah uttered words less impressive, let 
criticism point out the fact; but the richness and ma- 
jesty of the earlier Isaiah's strains are recognized by 
every devout and sensitive heart. 

Criticism must not indeed degenerate into hyper- 
criticism. If glaring errors have been committed in as- 
cribing to earlier ages what manifestly was first taught 
in later times, the critic who demonstrates the fact is 
entitled to credit. Let what is clearly apocryphal be 
rejected. Legends should be remanded to the cate- 



2i8 UNIVERSALISt CONGRESS. 

gory of myths or fables; but what successfully defies 
carping or disparagement should be resolutely pre- 
served as unshakable and divine. The prophet that 
had but a dream may be dismissed to the rank of 
dreamers; but he that has spoken God's word faithfully 
is to be honored through the ages, and his words to be 
cherished as eternal verities. Paul's words aptly de- 
scribe the aim which the higher criticism should keep 
in view. "To build up, not to tear down," should be 
the paramount desire. Scholarship is most honorable 
when it seeks to foster rational faith, not when it would 
unsettle trust. 

But the higher criticism asks as to the genuineness 
of the New Testament also. It inquires specially as to 
the authenticity and accuracy of the Gospels. It affirms 
that we have no positive evidence as to the New Tes- 
tament canon till near the close of the second century. 
John's Gospel is not specifically named till about the 
year 180.A. D. But such a fact is not fatal to its hav- 
ing been composed nearly a century before; for habits 
of composition were not so common among the an- 
cients as among moderns. Several books indeed, 
known to have been composed by early Christian writ- 
ers, have perished. Still, early in the second century 
Papias, a contempory of some of the disciples of the 
apostles, speaks of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark,- 
and affirms that the Gospel of the latter was founded 
on the oral narratives of Peter. One expression that 
Papias uses has been made the ground of a theory fa- 
vored by certain critics. Says he, "Matthew wrote the 
oracles in the Hebrew language, and everyone mter- 
preted them as he was able." 

Before mentioning the theory to which we referred, 
it can be remarked that the first three Gospels are 01- 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM. $1$ 

ten spoken of as the synoptics. As they relate many 
of the same incidents in the life of our Lord, and ob- 
serve almost the same chronological order, a theory has 
been adopted that their authors followed a common 
original, though each of them relates additional facts. 
As Papias speaks of the oracles (la logid) of Matthew, 
it is supposed that that apostle wrote about the year 40 
A. i)., a brief fragmentary account of some of the most 
notable incidents in our Lord's career. But for years 
in the early church great importance was attached to 
oral accounts The apostles and the seventy could 
give interesting narratives of the deeds and words of 
their great teacher, and formal histories were less need- 
ed. Still, as the proem to Luke's Gospel shows, many 
books or pamphlets were written by independent writ- 
ers, and some of them contained legendary or apocry- 
phal stories. To furnish for his friend Theophilus a 
veritable account of our Master's acts and teachings was 
therefore Luke's design in composing his history. And 
if Matthew really wrote at an early date a fragmentary 
account in Aramaic, he found reason afterward to write 
a fuller account for his brethren. 

Now, some critics contend that Mark wrote his Gos- 
pel about the year 60. Luke composed his not many 
years after. The Book of Acts, which is also from his 
pen, leaves Paul a prisoner at Rome; but the apostle 
was executed in the lifetime of Nero, and that monarch 
closed his worthless life in the year 68. By conse- 
quence, the Gospel of Luke must have been written as 
early as 65, A. D.; and Matthew's Gospel, in its pres- 
ent form, three or four years later. Jerusalem had not 
been conquered when he composed his history, but 
was overthrown in the year 70. Perhaps the conjec- 
ture as to the date of Mark's Gospel should be quali- 



220 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

fied. That Gospel is beginning to be prized by all crit- 
ics for its originality and independence; yet if the the- 
ory that all of the synoptics were based on an early 
account by Matthew, explains to any mind the similar- 
ity in choice of incidents narrated, it may lawfully be 
held. 

But advocates of the higher criticism have not all 
agreed to accept the Fourth Gospel as a work of John 
the apostle. Objection has been raised to it on the 
ground that it is not positively named as his work by 
any Christian writer till about 180 A. D. Baur, there- 
fore, contended that it was not written till the latter 
part of the second century. But critics of the Tubin- 
gen school now admit that the book appeared as early 
as 130 A. D. To this admission they have been con- 
strained by important literary discoveries. "The Dia- 
tessaron of Tatian (which begins with the prologue of 
John); the last book of the pseudo-Clementine hom- 
ilies (referring to John 1x125); the knowledge of the 
prologue by Basilides, one of the earliest Gnostics; 
made known by the PJiilosopliumena of Hippolytus; 
the traces of Johannean phraseology in the Didache; 
have forced the critics to push the composition back 
from 170 or 150 (the date assigned by Baur), almost to 
the beginning of the second century, when many 
friends and pupils of John were still living." 

Cannot great stress be laid indeed on the fact last 
named? John lived to be nearly a hundred years old. 
His death must have caused a great sensation in the 
church If he had written a gospel history, the fact 
would have been known, and his decease would call 
new attention to it. If he had not written such a work, 
would the attempt to palm off on the church, within 
the next thirty years, a fraudulent pamphlet as a trust- 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 22 f 

worthy history from his pen have been successful? 
Would not scores, nay hundreds, who had revered him 
as the last of the apostles, have protested against the 
cheat, and asked, Where has this book been that we 
have never heard of it before? The circumstance that 
three trustworthy histories were already received 
by the church would have compelled a careful inquiry 
as to the authorship of a new work that relates many 
new stories, and places in different chronological set- 
tings familiar narratives. 

It is a gratifying circumstance that the advocates 
and opposers of the Johannean authorship of the 
Fourth Gospel are approaching an agreement. Not a few 
of the latter class acknowledge the unity of that work as 
a composition. They confess not only that there are 
doctrines taught in that Gospel which no merely human 
teacher could have invented, but that they are related 
in connection with incidents that naturally suggested 
their utterance. They find it hard to believe that John 
related incidents which some listener recorded and 
dovetailed with traditional accounts of the Saviour's ad- 
dresses. On the contrary they are constrained to ac- 
cept the account as the story of an eye-witness of won- 
derful occurrences, who was so impressed by them 
that he treasured them for scores of years in a retentive 
memory and rehearsed them with matchless fidelity. 
At the same time they raise an inquiry which even the 
advocates of the Johannean authorship admit to have 
weight. How could an old man retain in memory such 
long addresses and conversations for so many years? 

The reply is a concession that John perhaps condenses 
into a single speech different addresses which the Lord 
uttered. While the apostle's memory has a distinct 
retention of incidents that made on him and others an 



222 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

ineffaceable impression, he does not recall so faithfully 
fifty years afterward merely accessory circumstances; 
and the conversations he rehearses might not have 
been so full of details. He recounts nothing untrue, 
nothing but that was actually uttered at some time, but 
the striking points only were those which lingered in 
definite outline in his memory. For this reason the 
advocates of the Johannean authorship are ready to say: 
We grant that it is unlikely that the addresses of our 
Lord are reproduced with verbal accuracy, but they are 
substantially correct. There is something so graphic, 
however, in John's delineations that we feel that 
he is not relating cunningly devised fables, but vital 
truths. There is something so unique in the character 
of the man whose career he describes, that we are com- 
pelled to say, "Truly this was the Son of God." 

One objection made to the Johannean authorship is 
that the style of the Fourth Gospel differs from that of 
the Apocalypse. Now Justin Martyr speaks of that 
work as having been written by John, the Apostle. And 
its style betrays its authorship. Its sublime imagery, 
its vivid metaphors, its bold personifications, its ener- 
getic words, remind us of one whom our Lord aptly 
styled "a son of thunder." The Apocalypse, however, 
was probably composed in the year 68 or 69. The Gos- 
pel was not written till a score of years afterward, and 
in the interval, the stormy emotions that dictated the 
earlier work had subsided. And beside this it must be 
recollected that the earlier work was a poem, while the 
Gospel is a sober history. A difference of style is 
therefore to be expected. Taking this fact into account 
we have been obliged to say, as we have read the books 
•side by side, the same hand penned them both. 

But we are cramped for space. A word as to the 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 223 

other books must suffice. Even the Tubingen school 
concede the genuineness of all but three or four of the 
epistles of Paul. And if the domain of skepticism has 
been so narrowed, may not the hope be cherished that 
even doubters will ere long grant the substantial authen- 
ticity of the entire New Testament? God, who in an- 
cient times spoke to the fathers through the prophets, 
in later days spoke to teachable men and women by 
his Son, whom he appointed "heir of all things." The 
dealings of the Most High with his ancient people are 
made known in the old record. The matchless deeds 
and living words of his Son are rehearsed in the New 
Testament. Brave men and loving women, though 
menaced by martyrdom, treasured the words of the 
Lord and his apostles as living oracles. Drawn to the 
great teacher, as these men and women were, by his 
noble deeds and inspiring words, they were impelled 
to a godly life and a transporting hope. They handed 
his words down as a hallowing, uplifting power, and 
no captious speculations as to the genuineness of 
records should make men forgetful of the fact that the 
words of Jesus "are spirit and are life." In every age 
the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation in 
every believing soul. 

Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 14. 



XV. 



THE ATTITUDE OF THE UNIVERSALIST 
CHURCH TOWARDS SCIENCE. 



BY PRESIDENT I. M. ATWOOD, D. D. 



THE attitude of the Universalist church towards 
science may be described in a single sentence. 
It is an attitude of interest, sympathy and expectation. 
Science has already been of great service to the Uni- 
versalist church. It has made our career wider, our 
mission more significant, our contention plainer. 
Science has not been especially concerned with Uni- 
versalism and has not directly given it aid or counte- 
nance. But indirectly and incidentally it has been our 
ally. So without special effort or conscious purpose 
the attitude of our church towards science is friendly 
and expectant. It has no fears, no suspicions, no basis 
for misunderstanding. 

But this short answer, like most short answers, does 
scant justice to the subject. We shall be in a situation 
to get the whole value of the answer when we have taken 
a survey of the field marked out by our theme. 

Science is a term of somewhat indefinite meaning. 



/ 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE. 22$ 

It may denote the whole realm of modern inquiry into 
which the scientific method has so largely entered. So 
construed it will include along with the physical and 
mathematical sciences, civil, social, political, industrial, 
financial, moral and religious science. It will no more 
leave out exegesis than spectrum analysis, ethics than 
biology, biblical criticism than bacteriology, the evolu- 
tion of faiths and dogmas than of species. It is pos- 
sible for a church to hold an attitude towards science 
conceived of in this comprehensive meaning. And I 
should say, so far as I am authorized to speak, that the 
attitude of the Universalist church is still one of interest, 
sympathy, expectation. While, if the term be con- 
strued in its narrower and usual sense, as concerned with 
observation and experiment in the study of physical 
nature, the formula which expresses the attitude of the 
Universalist church towards it would not have to be 
changed. 

But why are we called to consider such a question? 
What antecedent history or state of contemporary facts 
makes such an inquiry pertinent? Is not the attitude 
of every Christian church friendly to science? And is 
there any special difference in the attitude of different 
churches? 

I lack the time, and, I am willing to admit, the dis- 
position to enter on the history of the relations of the 
Church to scientific inquiry. Draper and Buckle and 
Lecky, and more recently, ex-President White, have 
explored this field with diligence, and though in the in- 
terest not always in the spirit of science. The whole 
truth has seldom been allowed to appear in their pages. 
Revision, like that which Justin Winsor's picture of 
Columbus and Las Casas has received from the hand of 
John Fiske, is required before we shall be able to draw 



226 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

a just balance and say precisely how the account stands 
between the church and the spirit of inquiry. But I 
accept for the church in anticipation a general verdict 
of condemnation. It is convicted of many distinct acts 
of oppression and persecution, and of an attitude uni- 
formly suspicious and illiberal towards intellectual free- 
dom and scientific research. Such a history has left 
an entail; and whatever the present relations of the 
parties, it is impossible to lay aside entirely the weight 
of inheritance. The relations to-day are affected by 
what they were in former years. 

But apart from the history there is that in the mental 
habits of the students of religion and of science which 
separates them. The student of science detects in the 
student of religion a different motive and outlook from 
those to which he is trained; and it begets in him a 
suspicion of the value of religion. He finds the repre- 
sentative of religion searching, not for the fact, but for 
reasons for this or that opinion. The mental habit 
which science cultivates is of search, investigation, with 
the purpose of arriving at the fact, whatever it may be. 
This is not always, perhaps not usually, the theological 
temper. The theological mind is dominated by a pre- 
possession and is interested in facts chiefly as supports 
to preconceptions. Familiarity with such a temper in 
the advocates of religion induces in the man of science 
a certain aversion to religious men and their cause. 

On the other hand, the student of religion becomes 
aware of an habitual outlook and an animus in the men 
of science which impress him unfavorably. They ap- 
pear to be expecting facts that are anti-religious, and 
to be watching with some eagerness for them. They 
are inclined to construe knowledge and science in a 
narrow way, as confined to observed phenomena or mat- 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE. 227 

ters of sense-perception. They treat things incapable 
of "scientific verification" as if they were unreal, and so 
cut down the area of thought and life to an insignificant 
point. This spirit, so foreign to that in which he has 
been trained, repels the student of religion and induces 
in him a certain suspicion of the time-proof quality of 
scientific "results," and a distrust of the validity of 
much that goes under the name of science. 

It is natural, therefore, and it is the fact, that there 
should be want of sympathy and perfect good under- 
standing between the departments of science and of reli- 
gion. This strained relation shows sometimes in 
marked and historic instances, as when Principal Wace 
and Prof. Huxley step down into the arena and take 
up the challenge of controversy. It is worth remark, 
ing, however, that the tone of the debate has much im- 
proved in recent years. A wider and a deeper view is 
succeeding to the polemical and partisan aspect of the 
question; and in that clearer atmosphere each contro- 
versialist acquires a more favorable vision, both of his 
subject and his antagonist. 

It is among the gains of our era, that certain phases 
of religion are naturally hospitable to science. This is 
due, I think, to the advent of systems of religion 
emancipated wholly or in part from mythological dog- 
ma. The great dogmas of the church for many cen- 
turies have rested on a basis of pure mythology. That 
is, on alleged powers, persons and transactions, hav- 
ing existence only in the brain of the inventor. It is 
undeniable that there has been a Christian mythology. 
It is equally undeniable that this mythology is passing 
away. The notion of a fall, a personal devil, a material 
hell; the dogma of substitution, by which the innocent 

Cbn'st is sacrificed in the room of guilty man to sat- 
16 



228 UN1VERSALIST CONGRESS. 

isfy vindictive and artificial "justice;" salvation by con- 
tract; arbitrary and unending punishment, and the resur- 
rection of the flesh, are doctrines which it is not too 
much to say have no basis in reality. The advent of 
systems of theology from which these doctrines have 
been eliminated, has opened a via media between 
science and religion. For the scientific method, when- 
ever it got possession of theology, was destined to 
make these dogmas untenable. 

It must not be supposed, however, that the reform 
of theology was effected by science. Such a claim is 
frequently set up, and the concession is granted on the 
part of theology without controversy. But it is a pal- 
pable error. Historically, the movement for rational- 
izing theology began among the theologians, and for a 
long period it was carried on almost exclusively within 
theological circles. Butler was a theologian, and so 
were Wolf and Paulus, and Eichornand Schleiermacher, 
as well as Strauss and Bauer and Renan. To be sure, 
Voltaire and Rousseau and Lessing and Hume at- 
tempted the reform of religion, but from the side of 
philosophy and literature, not science. And while 
their assault left theology unchanged, that of the theo- 
logians wrought a great revolution in the thought and 
doctrines of the church. It should be marked with a red 
line that rationalism in theology antedated by a long 
period any noticeable effect of science on religion. 
Siegvolk, Priestley, Ballou, Channing, though they did 
not belong to the anti-supernatural strain of rational- 
ists, were moved by a like rationalizing spirit; and their 
influence on theological thought is as much! wider as it 
was earlier than the invasion of science. 

By whatever means brought about, it is a fact of 
which we may here make grateful mention, that the 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE. 229 

advent of systems of theology from which mythology 
had been eliminated, opened the way for sympathy and 
a good understanding between religion and science. 
Among these systems, Universalism occupies an early 
and prominent place. It is pre-eminently a reasonable 
religion. Its affinity with science is not in the circum- 
stance that they seek common ends. Except on a 
very limited range they do not. Nor are they con- 
sciously working together. It is in the fact that both 
have risen to a common intellectual level; and as it 
always is with minds on the same plane, enjoying the 
same outlook, there arises the feeling of good-neigh- 
borhood and the frequent opportunity of exchanging 
greetings. Besides, it must often occur to the more 
thoughtful on either side, that the little any one absolute- 
ly knows, and the enshrouding mystery in which we all 
move, should rather beget a spirit of modesty and 
kindliness among fellow voyagers on an unknown sea, 
than incite to words of vain contempt and acts of 
childish passion. 

Let us now attempt a definition of science and of 
Universalism, and thus place ourselves in a position 
more accurately to estimate their relations, It must 
be premised, that only that is science which is accepted 
as such by scientists of acknowledged authority. There 
are two parts to the science thus approved. (1). There 
is the body of verified facts and phenomena about 
which those competent to speak, no longer dispute. 
(2). There is the body of opinions or doctrines, more 
or less well supported by things known, but not yet 
verified. Now, the realm of nature, which is the field 
of scientific research, contains all the laws, facts, phe- 
nomena, of any actual or possible science. True science 
is, therefore, a transcript of nature. What is, that is 



230 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

God's science. What we know of what is, that is our 
science. Our science, human science, as it exists at 
any time is the conception which scientific minds have 
of the order of nature, its laws and its phenomena. The 
science that exists at any time is true science only to 
that degree in which the conception corres- 
ponds to reality. The important changes and recon- 
structions going on continually in human science, au- 
thorize the conclusion that the best conception yet 
attained is imperfect and very incomplete. While many 
things are ascertained with satisfactory fulness, many 
more are either entirely unknown or only dimly or in- 
exactly apprehended. Science, then, is the present 
state of our knowledge of the actual order and phe- 
nomena of nature. It can scarcely be said that science 
takes in any of the substantive truths of religion, except 
by way of inference, and that only to a religious mind. 
Universalism is a religion. It is the faith that in the 
order of nature and the plan of God it has been provided 
that at length right and truth and good shall everywhere 
prevail. It is not what we know, but what we believe 
on the strength of what we know. As a Christian doc- 
trine, Universalism looks to an issue in which all souls 
shall be one in Christ. Its conception is of the whole 
human creation delivered from the bondage of corrup- 
tion and imperfection and established in righteousness 
and truth. The law of love, which it perceives to be 
the imperious law of the moral realm, requires good- 
ness, salvation, perfection; and will be satisfied with 
nothing less. While some systems distinctly announce 
failure and waste and uncured evil as the order of na- 
ture and the plan of God; and other systems contem- 
plate this mournful issue as inevitable after the best 
that divine wisdom and goodness can compass has 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE. 23 1 

been done; Universalism affirms, as the only valid con- 
clusion of the reason, as the loftiest intuition of the 
spirit, and as the necessary logic of the mission of 
Jesus and the church, 

—"That good shall fall 
At last— lar off— at last, to all, 
And every winter change to spring." 

What is the attitude of this faith towards this science? 
I renew my affirmation: It is an attitude of interest, sym- 
pathy, expectation. If any prefer, he may say it is an 
attitude of composure and strong confidence. It is, at 
all events, the attitude of one who has everything to 
hope and nothing to fear. 

Well, what does Universalism expect from science? 
If there be any danger here, it is that we shall expect 
too much and expect that which science has not to 
give. On this subject some illusions are indulged. We 
often hear of the contributions science has made to re- 
ligion; and in some instances attempts have been made 
to catalogue them. But it is doubtful whether science 
has made any direct contributions to religion. Its aid 
has been indirect and incidental. I am not able to 
think of a single constituent element of religion which 
it owes to science. The doctrine of God, of provi- 
dence, of fatherhood; of immortality and heaven; of 
sin, forgiveness, salvation; of eternal life; of duty in its 
wide sweep and minute detail; of the church, the min- 
istry, worship, prayer; of brotherhood, equity, charity, 
— none of these is the gift of our science. The utmost 
that science can do in the realm of religion is to furnish 
a method of "proving all things'' in order that we may 
hold fast only the good. This service is indeed vast and 
beneficent; and it is precisely what, and to my inspec- 
tion only what, science has contributed to religion. It 



232 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

has cleared the air and blown away much dust and 
chaff from the formidable heap of theological accumu- 
lations, exposing the golden grain for our admiration 
and use; but it did not "contribute" any of the grain. 

Perhaps the most striking illustration of this service 
which could be cited, is the revolution which has taken 
place under the lead of science in the religious as well 
as in the common mind, in regard to nature. The theo- 
logical doctrine of a curse, resting not alone on the 
spiritual nature of man, but on his intellect and his 
physical frame as well, and including the beast with 
him in a common derangement and infirmity, in conse- 
quence of the sin of Adam, was for a long period so 
construed as to involve the whole scheme of the natural 
world. The weeds of the garden and pasture, violent 
storms and earthquakes, the ferocity of wild beasts, dis- 
tempers, plagues, blights, droughts, shipwrecks, along 
with disease and sin, were attributed to the curse which 
fell upon man and nature in consequence of "the first 
transgression." There may never have been a very 
solid and universal belief in this fiction, even among 
the devout. But we owe the complete emancipation of 
our religion from this awful vagary to the disclosures 
of modern science. Nature is no longer a ruin; it is 
the unbroken and majestic realm of unity and order. 
Instead of a wrecked original, it. is the original un- 
wrecked. It is our standard and measure and type. 
Mystery and unfinished works abound in nature, but no 
derangement nor dislocation. Nature is proved by in- 
numerable and unanimous witnesses to be sound and 
trustworthy. 

Here it will be noted that the effect has been inci- 
dental. Science did not set out to correct theology. 
But her positive discoveries negatived a religious fable. 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE. 233 

She turned her search-light on the realm peopled by 
fancy with monsters, and lo! a city of God, beautiful 
with his handiwork and vocal with the praises of his 
mighty hosts. 

It may seem to some that I am scarcely doing jus- 
tice to science in the share I award her in the improve- 
ment of religion. Some of my readers will recall the 
volumes by John Fiske on the Idea of God and on the 
Destiny of Man, and several recent volumes on the Re- 
ligion of Evolution, among which those of Prof. Le Conte 
and Dr. Lyman Abbott and Principal Caird may not un- 
likely hold a prominent place. It is the study of works 
like these, in connection with the more subtle discussions 
of Thomas Hill Green, that has led me to the conclusion 
announced above. I should cite just these works in 
support of my view that science has not made any di- 
rect contribution to religion and is not to be expected 
to do so. Mr. Fiske is as ingenious as any man who 
has written on the subject. But while he appears to 
suppose himself to be deriving certain religious ideas 
from Evolution, what he really does is to read certain 
religious ideas into evolution. Given the ideas, and evo- 
lution may be found to be pervaded with them; and so 
may the brooks and birds and flowers; so may history 
and ordinary human experience. But starting without 
the ideas, evolution will not supply them. This is at 
the same time demonstrated and illustrated by Edward 
Clodd, a thorough-going evolutionist and a thorough- 
going atheist. We have here the explanation of a fact 
which has perplexed not a few. Some evolutionists 
are theists and even supernaturalists; while some are 
agnostics and others atheists. The reason is, that a 
man can get neither religion nor irreligion out of evo- 
lution; he gets it out of postulates and assumptions 



2^4 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

which he may indeed mix with his evolution but which 
are really distinct from it. Read Dr. McCosh and you 
see plainly that his theism and his Christianity overlie 
and underlie and are shot through his evolution. 
Read Prof. Huxley, and you see that his agnostic atti- 
tude gives inclination and shape to his cast of evolu- 
tion. Read Edward Clodd, and you see that it is a 
solemn and determined atheist who is making it as 
clear as a geometrical demonstration, that on the prin- 
ciples of evolution a God is unnecessary and impossi- 
ble. If I were to write science where I have written evo- 
lution in these examples, the propositions would equally 
hold. 

It is apparent now what answer I would make to an 
inquiry which has occupied many minds in recent 
years, How is religion to be harmonized with science? 
By not attempting to harmonize either with the other; 
but by leaving each to act freely on the other while 
both pursue their respective paths of development. It 
has been so many times said that it is becoming a stale 
truism, that there can be no conflict between true religion 
and true science, since each is a department in the one 
realm of fact and truth. But this happy solution slurs 
the real difficulty. The real difficulty is, that no one 
knows what true religion is or true science. Religion 
as accepted and expounded, and science as apprehended 
and taught, are both faulty and incomplete. The dis- 
sonances between systems thus imperfect are likely 
due to the fact that neither has yet struck the true note. 
In any attempt to bring the two into accord we are 
embarassed by the want of a standard pitch. If we 
take our key from religion, which variety shall we se- 
lect? And whichever we select we shall not dare to 
assume that it is without flaw or quaver. If we start 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE. 2^ 

from science, its name is yet legion and its voices jan- 
gled. Neither has yet found absolute and final ex- 
pression. If, then, we brought them to a forced and 
momentary harmony it would be only to find them 
breaking into discord again with the very first move- 
ment of progress in either. 

I make bold to declare that it is no part of our busi- 
ness to harmonize religion and science. Harmony is 
not produced, it ensues. When religion and science 
strike the same note we shall know; and everything 
that hath in it the divine concord of truth will vibrate 
a glad response. And this note will be struck, not by 
fumbling to find it, but by patient and candid and un- 
trammeled inquiry along the respective lines of their 
providential pursuit. Suppose it were attempted to 
harmonize two schools in philosophy, as the Idealist 
with the Realist; or two hypotheses in science, as Dar- 
win's with Mivart's theory of the origin of species, or 
Buchner's with Helmholtz's theory of force; or two re- 
ligious sects, as the Episcopalians with the Congrega- 
tionalists. It is transparent that no way exists in which 
the thing can be done. The parties may be brought to 
debate with each other. They may be persuaded to 
forego acrimony and accusation. They may even be 
drawn up to a plane of reciprocal respect and cordial 
intellectual exchange. That sort of harmony, which is 
simply courtesy in discussion and candor in inquiry, 
may properly be sought. But the harmony intended 
by those who seek in some way to reconcile one con- 
tention with another, is possible only as the issue of a 
fair and sincere trial of the merits of each. It may not 
be possible or desirable to have religion as we conceive 
of it reconciled with science as we know it. Better 
leave that matter to the spontaneous action of the hu- 



236 UNIVERSAMST CONGRESS. 

man mind after it shall have felt the force of all the 
facts and all the reasons. 

In saying this I am not insensible to the existence 
of tendencies in our religion and in our science, which 
are prejudicial to the best interests of both, and in some 
measure inimical to the highest welfare of mankind. 
In my view, religion should be free from bigotry and 
the exclusive spirit, open-eyed and courageous in the 
face of all disclosures; yet strong, fervent, positive, 
walking more by faith than by sight, and so conscious 
of the possession of a treasure without which life would 
be poor, that it never for an hour turns aside from its 
mission of saving the world or pauses on its glorious 
march to the conquest of the nations. Whatsoever, in 
any type of religion or religious administration, savors 
of blindness and darkness and tyranny, I deplore. 
Equally do I grieve over symptoms of a purpose to re- 
place religion with intellectual inquiry and critical dis- 
quisition, — to substitute for the bread of God which 
came down from heaven to give life to the world, a 
stone, albeit a carved and curious and glittering stone. 

On the other hand, a whole generation of interested 
observation of the field of scientific activity, while it has 
charmed and inspired me with the quick-accumulating 
record of its marvels, has left on my mind a painful im- 
pression. The tendency of scientific pursuit is to empty 
the mind of interest in religion, save as a target for 
criticism. I am perfectly aware of the emphasis of my- 
statement. It is not heated by passion or fancy; it is 
cold and deliberate. I am speaking by the card. The 
eminent exceptions are fully estimated. The signifi- 
cant endeavors on the part of distinguished scientists to 
throw a bridge across the chasm of which they are 
conscious between their realm and ours, is accurately 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE. 237 

noted. But the fact remains, that the tendency of sci- 
entific pursuits in our day is to take out of the mind 
any vital interest in religion. This tendency may be 
counteracted; it will at length be counteracted. In the 
case of many of the ablest and most brilliant it has been 
successfully resisted. But it exists, and it is strong. 
So strong that it bears utterly away the larger part of 
the ingenuous youth who commit themselves to the 
current. I make no attempt here to give the rationale 
of the situation; I simply record the fact. And I am 
sure all thoughtful persons, whatever their personal 
bias, must agree that it is not a pleasant fact. While 
to those who think as I do, that interest in religion and 
a degree of enthusiasm and service in it are essential, 
equally to the moral health of society and the sound- 
ness and sweetness of individual life, it is a disturbing, 
not to say a distressing fact. 

Yet, after measuring the full import of the tenden- 
cies on each side, the Christian mind, it seems to me 
must remain serene. God is, and every man is God's 
spiritual child, and the final meaning of the cosmos, as 
well as of the human soul, is moral. This is what all 
searchers shall at last find out. And in that aeon, 
near or remote, all paths of real knowledge shall be 
seen to lead the inquirer to Him in whom all live and 
move and have their being. 

Presentation Day, Hall of Washington., Sept. 13. 



XVI. 

DENOMINATIONAL ORGANIZATION 
AND POLITY. 

The Position of Woman in the Church and Sunday School 

Work. 



BY HON. HOSEA W. PARKER. 



THE topics considered in this paper are: First, our 
denominational organization and polity; second, 
the position of woman in the Universalist church; 
third, our Sunday-school work and interests. 

The law governing the Universalist church, or the 
denomination of Christians known as Universalists, is 
not in any sense complicated, but is simple, and can be 
easily understood. It is more an outgrowth of the 
necessities of the denomination as it has developed 
from time to time, than an arbitrary code of ecclesias- 
tical procedure. In order to give a clear understand- 
ing of the present organization of the Universalist 
church and its polity, it will be necessary to review the 
history of the church. In this particular I give credit 
very largely to the Rev. Richard Eddy, D. D., the ac- 
credited historian of the Universalist denomination. 



ORGANIZATION AND POLITY. 239 

During the first seventy-five years of Universalism 
in America there was comparatively little legal author- 
ity or governing power in the various organizations, 
societies and conventions of the denomination. As 
early as 1785 societies professing faith in Universalism 
had been formed in various towns in Massachusetts, 
and it is said that the society in Oxford, Mass., may be 
truly styled the parent of the General Convention. 
This was in August 1785. The records of these early 
organizations are very imperfect, and there are few 
facts that remain, from which can be obtained an un- 
derstanding of their legal significance. 

These bodies were voluntary associations, and their 
primary and principal object was to inculcate the par- 
ticular doctrines, as then understood, of Universalism. 
They then gave little or no attention to organization, 
or to legal procedure. In 1803, at a session of the 
General Convention held at Winchester, New Hamp- 
shire, the "Profession of Faith" was adopted, which 
has since been recognized as the corner stone in the 
denominational fabric. 

Other conventions of a general character had been 
held before this time, but just at this period, a crisis had 
come, and some decisive action must be taken. Uni- 
versalists before this time had been compelled to pay 
taxes to the orginal, or established, parishes, in many 
towns where they resided, and in order to prevent a 
continuance of this obnoxious practice, the Univer- 
salists of this early time felt called upon to take a de- 
cided stand, and to be pronounced in their opposition 
to this system of taxation. It was imperatively nee 
essary that they should emphasize their opposition 
not only by promulgating their particular denomina- 
tional faith, but by declaring themselves an indepen- 



240 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

dent body of Christian believers, and in order to distin- 
guish themselves from other bodies of Christians, they 
took the name of "Independent Christian Univer- 
salists." 

This they regarded necessary in self defense. They 
must establish themselves as an independent sect, un- 
der some common form of government, and be known 
by some common name. For these reasons a charter 
or compact was drawn by John Murray, at first for the 
use of the society in Gloucester, Mass., but which was 
presented to the association at Oxford the next year. 
This "charter" or "compact" was nothing more than a 
mutual agreement to hold stated religious meetings, 
choosing committees, providing for voluntary subscrip- 
tions, for the purpose of supporting teachers of piety, 
religion, and morality, and for assisting poor and dis- 
tressed brethern. It also provided for the choice of 
such officers as the compact might require. All sub- 
scribers were to have an equal voice and vote, and any- 
one could withdraw at pleasure. 

All questions were determined by two-thirds of the 
members present, and seven members constituted a 
meeting. It also provided that in case any member 
should suffer persecution from an unlawful exercise of 
power, the association should offer all legal assistance 
that it could, in extricating the member from difficulty 
and thereby enabling him to enjoy that freedom which 
is set forth in the constitution of the state, declaring 
that they would not acknowledge the right of any 
human authority to make laws for the regulation of 
the conscience in spiritual matters. With these funda- 
mental principles as guide, "looking unto Jesus the 
author and finisher of their faith," the fathers of the 
Universalist church went forward proclaiming the un- 
dying love of God, 



ORGANIZATION AND POLITY. 24I 

Conventions were held in several of the states with 
great regularity until 1833. During these years the 
question often came up as to the authority of the Gen- 
eral Convention, as affecting the state conventions, and 
associations. As a rule societies and subordinate or- 
ganizations claimed the right and did exercise all the 
powers of any convention, and did not acknowledge 
any superior authority. As early as 1821, an effort was 
made to give the General Convention greater authority, 
and in some degree to supervise the action of subor- 
dinate bodies, but so great was the opposition that 
nothing was done. 

In 1827 it was proposed to change the plan of rep- 
resentation, and to provide that the General Conven- 
tion should be made up of clergymen of all the associa- 
tions in fellowship with the denomination, together 
with delegates from each of the state conventions. It 
was then proposed that all associations should adopt 
the "Articles of Faith" which were professed by the 
General Convention, and thus be governed by the rules 
of that body. 

These propositions met with some favor and were 
referred to a committee- whose duty it was to present a 
plan for the better government of all organizations in 
fellowship, including the General Convention. This 
plan excluded lay delegates and failed to be adopted. 
Some of the state conventions declared their indepen- 
dence and refused to be governed by the General Con- 
vention. Notwithstanding this declaration to be in- 
dependent of the General Convention, there was a 
growing feeling that there should be some supreme law 
governing the various organizations in the different 
states. In 1833, a revised constitution was adopted and 
the title of the convention was changed to "The Gen^ 



242 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

eral Convention of Universalists in the United States." 
By this constitution the General Convention was com- 
posed of four clerical and six lay delegates from each 
state convention. 

The leading thought in this new constitution was to 
fix a definite plan or principle of representation, but only 
claiming an advisory power over the subordinate 
bodies. By it the General Convention was a repre- 
sentative body. Societies sent their delegates to the 
state conventions, and these state conventions sent ten 
delegates to the General Convention. This was unjust 
and unsatisfactory, because it violated the first prin- 
ciple of a representative government, viz: equality. By 
this plan a state with a small number of societies had 
the same representation in the grand body that a state 
with a much larger number had. 

In 1 84 1 the General Convention was asked to adopt a 
constitution and plan, which would give it some author- 
ity over societies, associations and state conventions, 
and this subject was referred to a committee, and the 
committee reported in 1842. This committee was kept 
in power with instructions to present a plan of organ- 
ization and discipline. Nothing was done until 1844, 
when Rev. T. J. Sawyer, D. D., reported a plan defin- 
ing the powers of the General Convention, and of state 
conventions and associations. By this plan the "United 
States Convention" had jurisdiction over the several 
state conventions and could make such laws as the 
good of the denomination required. 

For several years there was a great amount of dis- 
cussion in the various conventions of the denomination, 
state and national, upon various legal questions relat- 
ing to fellowship and discipline, and in 1853 a com- 
mittee was appointed to revise and amend the consti- 



ORGANIZATION AND POLITY. 243 

tution and rules, and report at the next convention. 
They did report in 1854 and their report was adopted 
in 1855. The new constitution provided that the Gen- 
eral Convention should adopt such rules and regula- 
tions as should be necessary to bring about a uniform 
system of fellowship and discipline throughout the 
denomination. It was made the court of final appeal, 
and should settle all disputes between state conven- 
tions. 

Although this constitution gave the convention this 
power, no legislation was enacted to carry its powers 
into effect until 1858, when two acts were passed, viz: 
"An act to regulate the jurisdiction of the several state 
conventions and matters of discipline." Also, "an act 
to regulate a system of appeal." Up to this time all 
plans of church government had only been a partial 
success. In 1859, Rev. Dr. Brooks, as chairman of a 
committee said, "We have the name and some of the 
forms of organization but nothing of the thing itself," 
and again a committee was appointed to correspond 
with the different state bodies and to report a more per- 
fect plan of organization, but on account of the "War 
of the Rebellion," but little was done until 1863, when 
the committee made a report. They reported that the 
constitution of 1855 with a few modifications, would 
give to the General Convention all the authority and 
power that it would require for a successful adminis- 
tration of the affairs of the denomination. 

The modifications related chiefly to representation 
in the General Convention, to the election of a per- 
manent secretary and treasurer of the convention, and 
also to the giving to the convention power to adopt by- 
laws for the better government of the same, and also 

to create a board of trustees. 
17 



244 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

During the year a majority of the state conventions 
ratified this action, and this constitution was declared 
to be "the fundamental law of the convention." When 
a majority of the states ratified this constitution pre- 
sented to them by the General Convention, it has been 
truly said, that the relation between the several state 
conventions and the General Convention, was in many 
respects similar to that of the several state govern- 
ments to the national government at the time of the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution of the United 
States. By-laws were adopted, and rules for a general 
system of denominational organization. All through 
these many years of church growth, there was grad- 
ually being developed that system of ecclesiastical law, 
or church government, which we find to-day controlling 
the Universalist denomination in the United States and 
Canada. In 1866 an act of incorporation was obtained 
under the laws of the state of New York, entitled "an 
act to incorporate the board of trustees of the General 
Convention of Universalists in the United States of 
America." By this act of incorporation the conven- 
tion can hold real and personal estate to the value of 
$500,000, to be devoted exclusively to the diffusion of 
Christian knowledge, by means of missionaries, publi- 
cations and other religious agencies. In 1872 this 
charter was amended so that the corporate name should 
be "The Universalist General Convention." This 
charter has since been amended in some unimportant 
particulars. 

Thus it can be seen that the present organization of 
the General Convention, with its laws, rules and reg- 
ulations, has been the growth of three quarters of a cen- 
tury or more. 

The General Convention has a code of by-laws, de- 



ORGANIZATION AND POLITY. 245 

fining the duties of its officers, the order of business 
and various other matters connected with the General 
Convention which are too complex to be fully set forth 
in this paper. The parliamentary rules of the Ameri- 
can congress are in use in the deliberations of the con- 
vention and in conducting its business, so far as they 
are applicable. The General Convention has also 
adopted laws of fellowship, government and discipline. 
All of these laws, rules and regulations taken together 
form a clear and concise system of government, which 
is representative and democratic in its character. Al- 
though the General Convention is only one distinct 
body, it has all the functions of a legislative, executive 
and judicial government.* 

THE POSITION OF WOMAN IN THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 

The women of the Universalist church represent, in 
an eminent degree, the advance thought in liberal the- 
ology at the present time. In every branch of this 
church we find them foremost in its varied work. There 
are a large number of women to-day, who are leaders 
in conventions, associations, Sabbath-schools and in 
the pulpit as evangelists and pastors. Prior to 1869 
they had not made their influence felt to the extent 
that they have since then. It is true, however, that a 
great amount of religious work was done by the women 
in the early days of Universalism in America, but it 
was not of that positive, active kind that characterizes 
their work at the present time. 

Woman is the American teacher in the common 
schools to-day, and is exerting more influence for good 
in our country, than ever before in the history of the re- 

*Note. The Manual of the General Convention, containing the constitu- 
tion and laws, with forms of organization for churches and parishes, may be se- 
cured by application to the secretary, G. L. Demarest, D. D., Manchester, N. H. 



246 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

public. As Christian thought has advanced, the rela- 
tions of women to all of the progressive movements in 
human society are better understood and appreciated. 
We find them to-day in our colleges, as students and 
professors, and in all the callings and professions of 
life, but in no place is she doing better or more efficient 
work than in the Universalist church. The divinity 
schools of our church have opened wide their doors, 
and the young women are fast coming forward to pre- 
pare themselves as Christian teachers and preachers. 

Women did little or nothing in an organized form 
till the centennial year of the denomination in 1870. At 
the General Convention in Buffalo in 1869, it was de- 
cided to commemorate the one hundred years of the 
existence of the denomination by raising a permanent 
fund of $200,000 for missionary work. The women 
were called upon to assist in this work and this was the 
first time a meeting of women had been called for de- 
nominational work. As a result the " Woman's Centen- 
ary Aid Association" was formed with Mrs. Caroline A. 
Soule as president. 

Thirteen thousand women soon became members of 
this society, and many have since joined. During the 
first fourteen years of the existence of this organiza- 
tion, which has been incorporated, it had received about 
$200,000, and expended $193,000. It has published a 
large amount of denominational literature and circu- 
lated it extensively, and for many years has supported a 
missionary in Scotland. Mrs. Soule, whose work there 
reflects credit upon herself and upon the Universalist 
church, has occupied this field longer than anyone. 
The influence of this Association has been far-reaching 
and the different branches of the church have been 
greatly benefited by its work. 



ORGANIZATION AND POLITY. 24; 

Not only is woman's influence felt in the separate 
and independent work which she is doing through the 
various organizations of her own sex, but her influence 
is increasing year by year in the General Convention, 
and particularly is this true in the several state conven- 
tions, Sabbath-school conventions and Christian unions. 
As a missionary she is doing her grandest work, and 
exerting her most powerful influence. In the several 
churches of the denomination, it is the women who are 
constantly keeping the fires burning, and who are rec- 
ognized as the leaders in religious life and work. They 
are present at all of the meetings of the church and at- 
tend not only the religious services, but have a care for 
all the social duties, and many times are a very import- 
ant factor in the financial department of the church- 
Thus it can be seen that the position of woman in the 
Universalist church, is that of a sentinel on the outpost, 
guarding and protecting its many interests. In all con- 
ventions, organizations and in every department of 
church work, women stand upon a perfect equality with 
men. They are delegates in state and general conven- 
tions, serve upon important committees, speak upon 
all matters of business, vote upon all questions that are 
presented and considered in the highest bodies known 
to the denomination. Not only is this equality shown 
in the active work of the church in all its departments, 
but in a legal sense none of her rights or powers are in 
any way abridged. In a true sense woman is the spirit 
and the life of the Universalist church. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK AND INTERESTS. 

The Sunday-school is justly regarded as an arm or 
branch of the church, and although the church cannot 
exercise any authority over it, by virtue of any ecclesi- 



248 UNIVERSAL1ST CONGRESS. 

astical law, or organization, still it can have and does 
have a watchful care over it. The Sunday-schools con- 
nected with the Universalist denomination are generally 
independent bodies, and their management is usually in 
the hands of officers who do not necessarily have any- 
thing to do with church or denominational affairs. 
There is no uniform system of instruction, although 
the leading thought or purpose is to give religious in- 
struction to the young, and such others as may partici- 
pate in the exercises of the school. Nearly all churches 
or societies that call themselves distinctively Univer- 
salist, have connected therewith in some form, a Sab- 
bath-school. 

While we have very little data showing the history 
of Sabbath-schools in connection with the Universalist 
church, it is said that as early as 1816, a Sabbath-school 
was formed in Philadelphia, and in 1817, a school was 
instituted in Boston. In 1819 there was a school in 
Stoughton, Mass,, one in Gloucester in 1820, and one in 
Providence, R. I., in 1821. From 1830 to 1840 a large 
number were established in New England, also in New 
York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Before i860 more than 
one hundred and fifty schools had been started, and in 
1870 there were more than five hundred schools with 
an aggregate membership of more than forty thousand 
children. Since then the number has largely increased. 

In many of the states the Sabbath-schools have their 
organizations and meet in convention for the transact- 
ing of such business as will extend their influence, and 
build up the cause of Universalism. The Sabbath- 
school is and has been an important factor in religious 
work, in connection with the Universalist church. It 
has its publications, and its libraries wherever the Uni- 
versalist doctrines are preached or taught. That they 



ORGANIZATION AND POLITY. 249 

are powerful agencies for good in spreading abroad the 
distinctive doctrines of Universalism is admitted by all, 
both clergy and laity. In 1870 at the session of the 
General Convention of Universalists, a Sunday-school 
committee reported very fully upon the condition of 
Sunday-schools, and among other things recommended 
that "the General Convention should demand that a pro- 
portion of its members be so selected as to specially 
represent Sabbath-school interests." This committee 
claimed that one-half of the lay delegates should be 
selected with this view, and that a portion of the time 
of the General Convention at its sessions, should be 
given to Sabbath-school interests, but this recommend- 
ation has not been adopted. Methods of instruction 
are being constantly considered, and in many instances 
normal training for teachers have been instituted. The 
Sabbath school work, however, is not as efficient as its 
importance demands. It lacks in thorough organiza- 
tion, in systematic training in the distinctive doctrines 
of Universalism. It is the fountain from which the 
church must draw its supplies in the future, and there- 
fore demands the earnest and hearty support of all. 
Read in Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept y 14. 



XVII. 
LOVE, THE BASIS OF EDUCATION, 



BY PROF. N. WHITE, PH. D. 



THERE is a mutual interdependence between the 
conceptions of the intellect and the aspirations 
of the soul. Every aspiration seeks its cause and justi- 
fication in clear conceptions concerning it; while every 
clear conception of the intellect becomes the ground 
of nobler reelings and higher aspirations. The primal 
cause of this fact must be found in the essential unity 
of the human mind. 

This principle is nowhere more strikingly exempli- 
fied than in the sphere of religion. Every access of 
religious feeling and aspiration which reveals the pres- 
ence of the sphere of the unknown and inscrutable 
stirs up the intellect to turn the search-light of reason 
upon the unshaped product of newly awakened feelings 
of reverence and awe, and to form new conceptions of 
that which before lay beyond its ken. If this is true 
of isolated phenomena of the religious impulse and 
sentiment under the ordinary conditions of life, it is 
not less true of the more complex phenomena which, 
under peculiar and extraordinary conditions of the 



• THE BASIS OF EDUCATION. 2$t 

soul's life, precede and attend the inauguration and 
establishment of new forms of religious life The same 
principle is conspicuously present in the earlier and 
simpler statements of Christian doctrine. But while 
the emotional element in religion is more conspicuous 
than the intellectual in the inception of new forms and 
movements of the religious life, it cannot always re- 
main so, although a long interval of time may intervene 
before equilibrium is restored. 

" It is impossible," says Dr. Hatch, in his work on 
the Influence of Greek Ideas in the Christian church, 
" for any one, whether he be a student of history or no, 
to fail to notice a difference both of form and content 
between the Sermon on the Mount and the Nicene 
Creed." 

Similar phenomena are observable in the division 
of larger communions into sects or parties, though, as 
might be expected at this stage of religious develop- 
ment, the starting points are no longer mere religious 
impulses or aspirations. The intellectual element in 
them is clearly apparent. They are rather assumed be- 
liefs, theological conceptions now, often unclear, of the 
simpler kind, and with their relations to other religious 
and ethical conceptions dimly apprehended and imper- 
fectly defined 

But the essential theological conceptions upon which 
all sects are founded — the central facts in them — can- 
not always remain the exclusive possession of their ad- 
vocates. These conceptions must come in contact with 
the theological conceptions of other sects and com- 
munions, and, under the light of constant investigation 
and discussion, can vindicate their right to be only by 
standing the test of reason. In other words, any con- 
ception of faith or of revelation which denies entrance 



252 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

to the activity of reason, must sooner or later be aban- 
doned. 

Now, Universalism (I forbear to call it a sect), also 
has its fundamental and essential conceptions which 
involve the central fact in it, that without which it 
could not exist. The central all-inclusive fact of our 
faith is that God is love, and that his righteousness, his 
justice, his wisdom and his power, are modes of mani- 
festation, or the revelation of love, that is, of Himself. 
The righteousness and the justice of God are specially 
manifest in the sphere of the spiritual, the power of 
God is specially manifest in the sphere of the natural 
or material world, while his wisdom seems equally 
manifest in both spheres of being, and in some sense 
serves as a connecting link between the two. Again, 
since, metaphysically speaking, all these modes of 
manifestation are equally manifestations of love, that 
is, of God, and since He is the cause and ground of all 
things, only through love can the universe be in- 
terpreted. 

In the light of love we are therefore to seek for the 
meaning of human experience in every detail. In love 
knowledge and faith find their unity, and in the pursuit 
of the supreme object of life, all knowledge, all de- 
sires, emotions and aspirations are developed and satis- 
fied. Now, the highest kind of knowledge is the object 
of philosophical research, for philosophy has been 
rightly called "a rational inquiry into ultimate princi- 
ples." The aim of education, objectively considered, 
is the bringing of all human knowledge to the test of 
ultimate principles in which it finds its full meaning and 
interpretation, and here the desire for knowledge is 
fully and forever satisfied. Again, we may say that the 
element of love determines the positive virtues devel- 



THE BA SIS OF ED UCA TION. 253 

oped in human experience, and this finite love realizes 
itself and is satisfied only by infinite love. Thus we 
may say that human desires in the direction of knowl- 
edge and of moral and spiritual attainment find their 
unity in God, whose essence is love. 

I am aware that the unity of life, or of human ex- 
perience, which may be said now to be philosophy and 
religion, has been sought in truth, since truth may be 
said to be the object and goal of each. "The process 
of the one," says Dr. Mulford, "is in thought, of the 
other in worship; the one moves through reflection, the 
other through emotion; but each in its development, 
involves the other, as it has for its aim the truth." I 
cannot think that truth can satisfy the instinct of unity 
in both of these directions. A human soul is never 
satisfied with the attainment of truth — to perceive 
the truth is not enough; only being true can satisfy the 
felt needs of the soul. Truth is rather the instrument 
of the highest good than the object of highest aspira- 
tions. Many scientists of the present day concur in 
the definition of truth given by Mr. George H. Lewes, 
who says that "truth is the coincidence between the 
external and the internal order." It is also affirmed by 
way of explanation that "truth consists in the coinci- 
dence between that order of thought which is within 
us, and that other order of thought which is in the 
world outside of us." It would seem, however, as if 
"the world outside of us" must be held to include the 
sphere of the spiritual as well as that of the material 
realm. Now, will the mere apprehension of the fact 
that our thought coincides with the divine thought 
fully satisfy the felt needs of the human soul that impel 
it in the pursuit of knowledge? Rather is this posture 
of the mind in this pursuit of knowledge conditional 



254 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

and preparatory. In this light God communicates him- 
self and we awaken to a new life. In this light in which 
we apprehend perfect knowledge we, so to speak, 
enter the dwelling place of perfect love. "Perfect 
love," says Dr. Smythe, "can abide only in perfect truth." 
"Love rejoices in the truth," because it finds in it the 
perfect instrument of good. When truth, therefore, 
has executed the behests of love, the love of truth dies 
into the truth of an all-embracing love. Eternal life is 
the life of love, that is, of God. 

In love', then, is found the true unity of life. In 
its light is revealed the full meaning of human ex- 
perience, and under its guidance that experience may 
be so organized as to display its full efficiency and 
power in the training of human life to higher and 
diviner issues. 

Let us consider briefly some of the new aspects 
which human life would assume when organized under 
the supreme principle of love. 

In the first place life would lose much of its com- 
plexity and take on a nobler simplicity Many of the 
problems which now vex society would give promise of 
final solution. Under the guidance of love as the 
principle, human energies are no longer wasted through 
conflicting motives, and the way of useful activities 
brightens before us. 

The questions which cluster around the conceptions 
of justice cease to afflict when taken into the light of 
love. Is the rule of right better upheld by retributive 
or by corrective punishment? In this light punishment 
is seen to be the minister of love, disengaging from the 
soul all the motives and passions leading to the com- 
mission of wrong. Can that power which penetrates 
the inmost depths of the heart and opens them to the 



THE BASIS OF EDUCA TION. 2$$ 

seeking light and regenerating influence of love, sub- 
duing it unto itself, and causing it to render the glad 
service of filial homage to the right which it once sought 
to destroy, prove less efficient in upholding the law of 
right than that other power which, while it restrains 
the body, leaves the soul to pursue its end with the 
finer instruments of evil intact? What, indeed, can 
vindicate the right and establish its law, but the over- 
throw of wrong — the eradication of the very roots of 
evil? But only the power of love can do this. 

The recognition of love as the supreme principle 
and interpreter of human life, must awaken new energies 
in the service of man. Love knows nothing of the 
law's delay, no failure of purpose, no exhaustion of 
strength. This must be so since love gives us the clue 
to the divine purpose and every experience of life is 
seen to be a stage in the divine ordering of our life. 
We press on, for every act of service establishes new 
and closer relations between us and God. As life 
interpreted by love unfolds itself before us, it becomes 
charged with new and deeper meaning, since that mean- 
ing is expressed to us in terms of love, and the worth 
of true love when once felt is never questioned or 
denied. This earthly life when interpreted by love 
rises and expands more and more to the proportions of 
the heavenly. 

Are we not then justified in saying that human life, 
when organized and directed by love as the supreme 
principle, will take on new aspects? Will not its forces 
be deployed in a broader field and under new and 
serener skies? It would doubtless lose some of the 
features and attributes it now has and replace them by 
others peculiar to itself. In proportion to the thor- 
oughness of the organization of life under love, as its 



256 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

supreme principle, individual experience would tend to 
reach the infinite developments of the collective or 
social life of men, for love is social and communica- 
tive, and hatred secretive and unsocial. We should no 
longer regard the wholesale destruction of human life 
as merely so much loss or damage to the social organ- 
ism, but as so much diminution, so much wreck and 
waste of our own life. It would then seem to us pos- 
sible to do the greatest good to the greatest number 
only by striving to do the greatest good to all. 

Finally, it is only when human life in its utmost 
reach is seen to find its unity and final expression in an 
all-inclusive principle that it is seen to be purposive 
and revelative. Viewed in this light the whole history 
of human life in its collective, as well as in its individ- 
ual capacity, is seen to possess deep significance and 
priceless value as being a part of the revelation of di- 
vine wisdom. 

Human history thus becomes in the highest degree 
educative, but the value of its teachings is infinitely 
enhanced when, through all the unfolding of human 
life, its triumphs and defeats, its hopes and its despairs, 
a single point traces an unbroken line indicative of the 
moral continuity of life and destiny, and pointing to a 
final unity, which makes all history the interpreter of a 
universal hope. 

Now, if the training of the human intellect to its 
highest activity and efficiency consists in forming those 
conceptions which lie between first and final causes, 
and the training of the moral nature consists in forming 
those conceptions which lie between the first recognition 
and interpretation of the feeling of obligation, and those 
highest conceptions of personal relation to truth which 
form the ground of the moral law; and if the training 



THE BASIS OF EDUCATION. 257 

and development of the religious instinct consists in 
forming those conceptions which lie between the first 
dim apprehension of a bond uniting the human mind 
to a mysterious Mind, and those supreme conceptions 
of omnipotence, omnipresence and personality as at- 
tributes of an Infinite Being, then to show that it is 
necessary to postulate a supreme principle of love as 
the only rational basis of these orders of conceptions, 
and that through this principle only can human life 
and experience find their true interpretation, must be 
the work of education under the auspices of the Uni- 
versalist church. 

This is, indeed, a great work. Doubtless its perfect 
accomplishment is not possible by human powers. 
Practically, however, the problem is not an insoluble 
one. Over the highest efforts of the intellect in this 
direction a sense of mystery remains which the light 
of reason cannot wholly dispel. Nevertheless it re- 
mains true that only to those who believe that love is 
the final expression of the world of matter and of spirit, 
only to those who believe that love interprets the uni- 
verse, does this greatest of problems turn its luminous 
side. And, indeed, the problem becomes more intel- 
ligible as love wins her bloodless victories over ignor- 
ance and sin. 

Already there are foregleams of that auspicious 
time when this problem will no longer present a sphinx- 
like aspect. When an international code shall in the 
near future give good promise of perpetual peace among 
the nations; when contagious disease shall no longer as 
a ghastly visitant knock at the mansions of the rich or 
the hovels of the poor; when the efforts of beneficent 
enterprise, now making in the sphere of the economic, 
the social, the moral, and the religious life of men, shall 



258 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

have multiplied, making increasingly evident the vic- 
torious energy of love, then will the trembling hope of 
the solution of this world-problem die into a firm faith 
in its future concluded attainment. 

But the willing workers toward this consummation 
must be looked for among those who have this hope 
in them — among the Universalists of the Universalist 
church, or perchance among Universalists of other 
churches; but this work constitutes the mission of the 
Universalist church and the educational institutions un- 
der its fostering care are its indispensable ally. Nor 
has this truth been unrecognized by Universalists in 
any epoch of their history. Now it has been clearly 
perceived and now scarcely discerned. 

Clemens Alexandrinus grasped this great fact, but 
never wrought it out into clear consciousness. He 
clearly recognized, indeed, that theory of punishment 
which is consistent with a rational belief in universal 
redemption, but its philosophical basis has received less 
careful treatment. Origen, however, saw the full im- 
port of the message of infinite love, and while confess- 
ing that he could not fully grasp every element in the 
problem, yet he recognized the fact that it would be- 
come increasingly intelligible as richer materials of ex- 
perience were laid under contribution for its solution, 
and it rejoices us to know that he saw the victory of the 
ages and saluted it from afar. 

In the writings of the first preachers of our faith in 
this country, few indications are found that they 
occupied themselves with the wider problem. It could 
not have been otherwise. An acquisition must first be 
made secure before its full worth can be ascertained. 
But in their efforts to clarify and more accurately de- 
fine their conception of God as a Being of infinite love, 



THE BASIS OF EDUCATION. 259 

they could not fail to trench upon other closely related 
though subordinate conceptions. As no country can 
be bounded without knowledge of adjacent lands, so no 
province of thought can be accurately delimited unless 
the field of view extend beyond it. 

It was, therefore, inevitable that the advocates of 
the Abrahamic faith, while from the first believing and 
teaching that God is love, that he is the Father of all 
men, and that all men are brothers, should not be 
satisfied with the conclusion immediately deduced from 
these premises, namely, that all men have a common 
destiny. They were gradually drawn into wider fields 
of thought, to a fuller investigation of what is implied 
by such conclusion, drawn from premises so inclusive. 
It was inevitable, too, that they should not rest until 
they had reached the satisfying conviction that only 
through love as a supreme principle can life in all its 
aspects, and nature in all its forms, find their true inter- 
pretation. Still further; it was inevitable that, at some 
stage of this religious development, motives leading 
them to define doctrines and ecclesiastical positions 
should, for a time at least, cease to become dominant, 
and that they should seek by new applications of love 
as a supreme principle to throw a new and stronger light 
on the social and political as well as the individual life 
of men. In this light it will be seen that every sphere 
of human life and activity is but a means of love; and 
that material wealth, intellectual powers, moral attain- 
ments, and spiritual aspirations, become "treasures in 
heaven" only when vitalized by love and used in its 
service. Love is, then, the Basis of Education because 
it is the basis of life. 

Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 14. 

18 



XVIII. 

FOREIGN MISSIONARY WORK. 

The Japanese [Mission. 



BY GEORGE LANDOR PERIN, D. D. 



TO question the principle of Christian missions is 
to question Christianity itself. St. Paul's motive 
in pushing his pioneer Christian enterprise into Asia 
Minor, Greece and Rome, was the absorbing conviction 
that the gospel of Christ was superlatively good. Un- 
der the impulse of this conviction he could endure 
Jewish ostracism, poverty, stripes, stonings and ship- 
wreck as mere incidents in a work which on no account 
could be abandoned, because he believed that all the 
world needed the truth of Christ. This conviction, 
more or less strong, has been the impelling motive to 
Christian missionary effort ever since the days of St. 
Paul. Men have faced storm and fire and death un- 
der the conviction that they were performing heroic 
service in extending the Christian church To doubt 
that in this conviction they were right is to doubt the 
superlative value of Christianity. For how can a man, 
believing in the transcendent value of the Christian re- 



FOREIGN MISSIONS. 26 1 

ligion, free himself from the responsibility of extend- 
ing its influence and power; let whoever must deny its 
transcendent value. But believing in it, the principle 
of Christian missions is perfectly logical; not only so 
but indifference to this cause would seem to imply 
more or less indifference to the religion of Christ itself 
If the Christian religion is good, it is good for all the 
world. If it is good for all the world, then it is clearly 
the duty of each individual Christian to take deep in- 
terest in extending its influence. 

But if the principle of Christian missions cannot be 
seriously questioned, it is also true that the time has 
passed for debating the practical value of Christian 
missions as civilizing agents. It is simply a matter of 
history that in many lands they have paved the way 
for commerce, have put in intelligible order the native 
languages, have corrected vices, taught healthful 
methods of living, and brought out of the chaos of 
barbarism or semi-barbarism, the order of Christian 
civilization. Whoever, therefore, in modern times 
charges Christian missions with failure, convicts him- 
self either of gross ignorance or wicked misrepresenta- 
tion. That such charges are occasionally made is due 
first to the ignorance of travelers who have visited 
about everything in foreign lands except the missions 
themselves. Second, to the wilful misrepresentations 
of a part of the merchant class of foreign residents, 
who have no other interest in the country or the peo- 
ple than to use them for their own pleasure or profit, 
and to whose morals and methods of business, the mis- 
sionaries and their teachings are a constant rebuke. 

Perhaps there are few intelligent Universalists who 
would deny the practical value of missions, and none 
who would question the principle. But since the Uni- 



262 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

versalist church was one of the latest of the Protestant 
denominations to enter the foreign missionary field, it 
is but natural to raise the question as to why its mis- 
sion enterprises were not begun earlier? The simple 
but adequate answer is, that the Universalist church 
itself was from the outset and for many years a Chris- 
tian mission. It was not a powerful organization teach- 
ing in their entirety the well-known doctrines of the 
churches. But it was in the outset a handful of de- 
voted men of the Lutheran spirit, who believed they 
saw fundamental defects in the interpretation of both 
the letter and the spirit of the Christian religion, and 
set themselves the heavy and heroic task of correcting 
false interpretations which they believed to be at once 
dishonoring to God and a real impediment to the prog- 
ress of Christianity. In the days when Judson and 
Carey were pushing their missionary enterprises into the 
East, the Universalist church was still but a handful 
whose efforts were confined chiefly to New England. 
It would have been as reasonable for Wm. Lloyd Gar- 
rison to have carried on simultaneously with his cam- 
paign against American slavery another campaign 
against Arabian slavery, as for the Universalist church 
to have early engaged in foreign missionary enterprises. 
It was itself, in its plea for a God of perfect love, a 
Saviour who should be victorious, a destiny for man 
worthy of the children of God, and for a rational inter- 
pretation of the Scriptures, a missionary body with a 
commission as high and work as noble as that of any 
who ever sailed to a heathen land. The mission of 
Martin Luther was not less evangelical and not less 
heroic than that of Francis Xavier, though the latter 
lay among the heathen of the far East, while Luther 
never worked beyond the limits of his native land. So 



FOREIGN MISSIONS. 263 

the Universalists of America, with true evangelical 
spirit and true missionary zeal have waged a missionary 
warfare in behalf of a pure gospel worthy of the Master 
whom they have professed to follow. That this war- 
fare should have absorbed most of their resources and 
engaged most of their energies for many years was but 
natural; nay it was inevitable. 

But while, therefore, it is true that the influence of 
the Universalist church has been felt chiefly as a re- 
forming power in theology, it is also true that it has 
come at last to be something more than a theological 
protest. It has built schools and colleges, it has par- 
ticipated in the moral reforms of the time, it has de- 
veloped an institutional life which is seeking by all the 
ordinary means known to the Christian church to 
quicken the conscience and save men from sin. The 
Universalist church has had a specific task as well 
defined and as faithfully performed as that of Luther 
or Wesley. And it is only now, when its central idea 
has found wide acceptance in the Episcopal church, 
and as a hope at least among Congregationalist and 
other churches, that it is at liberty to turn away from 
the more specific work of the reformer, to the more 
general work of Christian culture. The events of the 
last few years have proved that it not only has the de- 
sire to do this, but also the Christian enthusiasm to 
successfully enter upon large Christian enterprises. 
And perhaps chief among these later enterprises 
stands the Japan Mission. 

If, in the providence of God, it had been the fortune 
of the Universalist church to end its work as a mere 
reformer in theology, its mission would still have been 
a noble one. Yet if its work had ended there it would 
seem to have been a misfortune. For there are none 



264 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

who can so efficiently make ideas workable in human 
life as those to whom they have come as a discovery 
or a revelation and who feel responsibility for their 
progress in the world. Universalist ideas should be 
most powerful in the hands of Universalists to the 
manor born. We ought, therefore, to regard the later 
development of our institutional life as very fortunate. 
For if we love these ideas we shall seek to give them 
clearer and clearer expression, wider and wider exten- 
sion, and above all, we shall seek to make them a 
practical spiritual power in the largest possible number 
of human souls. 

The organizing and sending out by the Universalist 
church in the year 1890, of the mission to Japan, (its first 
foreign mission to a non-Christian country), was the 
most logical thing it ever did. Who should be sent as 
missionaries to tell men of God if not those who from 
the first made the Universal Fatherhood of God central 
in their prayers and in their teachings? Who should be 
sent as brethren to help their less fortunate brethren to 
a better understanding of God and life and duty and 
destiny, if not those who have from the first believed 
in and taught as fundamental the Universal brotherhood 
of man? Who should be sent to tell other nations of 
a Saviour's love if not those who believe in a Universal 
Saviour? Who should be sent to lighten the hearts of, 
and inspire faith in, those who sit in darkness if not 
those who believe in a Universal gospel of good news? 
A Universalist without the missionary spirit is a con- 
tradiction in terms. Such an one suggests the idea of 
partial Universalism. To the true Universalist there is 
no Jew and no Gentile, no bond and no free, no favored 
race and no favorite spot in which to work. To the 
man full of the Universalist idea this is simply God's 



FOREIGN MISSIONS. 265 

world, every side of it, and the people in it are God's 
people, and the best place in which to work is where 
the work is most needed. Accordingly, when the prop- 
osition came definitely before the Universalist church 
to undertake a mission to Japan, it elicited genuine 
enthusiasm, and within a few weeks from the election 
of the missionaries, the people had generously equipped 
the mission for five years. The little missionary band 
reached Japan in April, 1890, and from that time to the 
present, the mission has received the generous support 
of the home church in every possible way. The Univer- 
salist church, therefore, not only stands committed to 
the principle of Foreign Missions, but it has earnestly 
entered upon the actual work. 

As a member of the mission force let me enter upon 
a brief statement of our motive, aim, method, and the 
results of our work thus far: 

Motive. — How far other missionaries have been 
impelled by the conviction that their fellow men of 
heathen lands were in danger of eternal torment it is 
difficult to determine. No doubt this has been a 
powerful motive with some; and one eminent authority 
has gone so far as to say that this is an indispensable 
motive to missionary effort. But it is perfectly safe to 
say that this conviction has not in the least influenced 
the Universalist church in its missionary enterprises. 
Perhaps it is unfortunate, but as a matter of fact it is 
not a motive with us, for we wholly reject the doctrine 
of eternal punishment. If a belief in that doctrine is 
essential to the success of missions then our work is 
certain to fail. If I have been able rightly to interpret our 
motive it has been the simple conviction that the re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ is good for all men, the men of 
Asia as well as of Europe and America, and that 



266 UNIVERSALIS! CONGRESS. 

because it is good, because it is the very best thing 
that any man can have, we are under the most solemn 
obligations to do our utmost to extend that religion. 
We ourselves have been blessed by the Gospel of 
Christ; it has filled our lives full of light and "woe is 
me if I preach not the Gospel" to others. Our motive 
is no other than that which impels every man to impart 
good news. Men need the great thought of God, they 
need to know that this world belongs to God, above all 
they need to know the infinite love of God. They need 
to know this more than they need to know anything 
else. There can be no higher motive than the desire 
to impart these great thoughts because men need 
them. The conviction, then, that the people of Japan 
needed the idea of one personal living God, to whom 
they are responsible, that they needed the Christian 
ideal in morals and the inspiration of a personal 
Saviour, and that we could at least do a little to implant 
and nourish these ideas, has been and is our inspiring 
motive. 

Aim. — In the mission field our aim has been to make 
positive and attractive statements of our thought with 
the view to converting men to the Christian life. On 
the assumption that it is better that theological battles 
be fought in Christian- lands, we have so far as possible 
avoided all polemics. If we have made theological 
comparisons it has been not in the spirit of controversy, 
but with the purpose of clearing away as far as possible 
intellectual difficulties from the minds of those who 
are troubled by hard doctrines. The central truths of 
Universalism, the Universal Fatherhood of God, the 
Universal brotherhood of man, the Universal character 
of Christ's atonement, the certain victory of right over 
wrong — these great truths we have preached very 



FOREIGN MISSIONS. 267 

positively and very earnestly, and it is not too much to 
say that we have found them congenial to the Japanese 
mind. There is no place on earth where ultra orthodoxy 
has less influence than in Japan. Until within a few 
years past there have been none but orthodox missions 
in this country; and yet it is entirely within the facts to 
say that the native leaders of Christian thought are 
more liberal than the liberal Congregationalists of 
America. It is simply impossible that extreme orthodox 
doctrines shall ever control the Christian thought of 
this country. If this shall ever become a Christian 
nation, as I confidently believe it will, it will only be 
through the preaching of a simple Christianity, freed 
from theological difficulties, in which the love of God 
for all men stands out clearly as the central message. 
To preach such a gospel has been and is our aim. If 
we have laid so much as a straw in the way of any other 
Christian mission is has been done unwittingly. It has 
not been our purpose to hinder but to help. That our 
thought has been found attractive to some who were 
already Christians was to have been expected, but it 
has never been our aim to influence men who were 
already converted. We are far more interested to give 
our gospel to the forty millions of the unconverted. In 
our simpler, more hopeful interpretation of Christianity, 
we believe we have immense advantages in our work. 
But it is our sole aim to bring men to Christ, and teach 
them their true relations to God and man. If we may 
do this, even in some small way, we shall be glad in the 
fulfillment of our purpose. 

Method. — The key to our method is to be found 
first, in the fact we have at no time had in the field 
more than four foreign missionaries. It seems to us 
undesirable and impracticable for foreigners to become 



268 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

evangelists in this country. It seems to us far better 
to spend our energies in educating native preachers. 
The difficulties of the language are immense. The dif- 
ficulties of learning and adapting oneself to native cus- 
toms are hardly less. To master thoroughly these dif- 
ficulties is the work of half a lifetime; and when they 
are mastered the foreigner will still be a foreigner, and 
for that very reason incapacitated for becoming a pas- 
tor. Before Christianity can have power in this coun- 
try it must be adapted to, and illustrated by, Japanese 
forms of thought. This can only be accomplished by 
Japanese preachers who know their people, their coun- 
try and their history. We have, therefore, made every 
other phase of our work bend to the work of training 
preachers in the conviction that there is no method of 
multiplying our influence so sure as this. 

The second key to our method is to be found in the 
fact that it has been from the first our purpose to en- 
courage the development of the Japanese church. We 
are strong in the conviction that this historic method, 
of mission work is the very best method. No machin- 
ery has yet been discovered so efficient for the exten- 
sion of Christian ideas and the nourishing of the Chris- 
tian life, as churches. The development of an institu- 
tional life for the training of individual Christians is ab- 
solutely indispensable. It is through the church that 
Christian ideas and Christian morals are to be made per- 
manent. We do not believe they can be made perma- 
nent and operative in any other way. It has been 
our purpose, therefore, to assist in the formation of a 
Japanese Christian church, in which believers may be 
gathered and trained in the Christian life. As already 
hinted, the part of the foreign missionary in this work, 
while extremely important, must be in its nature tern- 



FOREIGN MISSIONS. 269 

porary. He is to be for a time a teacher of the teach- 
ers, a pastor of the pastors, and an indispensable ad- 
viser in the early development of the church. Our 
method, therefore, centres in the development of 
churches, which are immediately placed in the hands 
of native pastors, who are, as far as possible, made re- 
sponsible for the success of the movement. We have 
not a single missionary on an out-station; but the whole 
force are engaged in teaching, while the outposts are 
visited two or three times a year. We do not profess 
to have fully tested the efficiency of our method, but 
we believe that in proportion to the amount of money 
expended, the results will be greater than by the old 
method of stationing a foreign missionary with each 
church. Foreign salaries are necessarily so much larger 
than those of native preachers that it seems to us that 
mission funds will produce larger results when ex- 
pended for the development of churches under native 
care alone. If our theory be correct then the foreign 
missionary force should consist mainly of men and 
women enough to equip the schools, and enough be- 
sides with a sufficient knowledge of the language to be 
useful as occasional outpost visitors. 

Results. — To count results in Christian work is al- 
ways idle and vain. Besides this, to undertake to sum 
up results after the brief period of three years seems 
absurd. We reached the country only three years 
ago and shall have been actually at work less than 
three years when this paper is read. This is but time 
enough to look around and begin to get acquainted 
with the situation. The results seem to the mission- 
aries themselves meager enough, and surely, at best 
there is nothing of which to boast. But for the en- 
couragement of our friends and as a prophetic answer 



270 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

to those who have predicted the failure of the Univer- 
salist mission, perhaps I may be pardoned for a brief 
statement of the outward results of our work thus far: 
(i.) We have a theological school in which ten stu- 
dents have been in training during the last year. (2.) 
We have a girl's school at Shizuoka, wholly under the 
care of native teachers, numbering more than fifty pu- 
pils. (3.) We have another group of ten girls in 
Tokyo under the special religious training of a foreign 
lady teacher. (4.) We have one organized church, with 
church-building and pastor, and one preaching station 
with native evangelist in the capital city, two preach- 
ing stations and two evangelists in Osaka, the second 
city of the empire, one preaching station, organized 
church and ordained pastor at Sendia, one preaching 
station and one evangelist at Shizuoka, one preaching 
station and one evangelist at Okitsu, one organized 
church with church-building and regular supply at Ho- 
den. (5.) We have had for the past two years a regu- 
lar monthly magazine printed in the vernacular, con- 
tributed to largely by native writers. (6.) We have 
translated and published books and pamphlets aggre- 
gating more than one million pages. 

All this is external, and without corresponding in- 
ternal results must be counted as vain and not at all 
worth the repeating, and I mention them at all only in 
the hope that they may be taken as a sign of some 
things that can not be seen except by Him who sees all 
things. At all events they maybe taken as suggestive 
that the Universalist church has at least set itself with 
resolution and enthusiasm to its mission task. And 
these outward results are certainly beyond the most 
sanguine expectations of the American Universalist 
church, and we trust may be in some measure prophetic 
of nobler achievements in the future. 



FOREIGN MISSIONS. 2JI 

It only remains for me to say that we have entered 
upon this work with faith. We believe absolutely in 
the Universal Fatherhood of God and the Universal 
Brotherhood of man, and if we shall be able to give to 
even a few of our brothers of the "Sunrise Kingdom" 
the good news of a Universal Saviour, we shall have 
performed by so much the Master's service. 
Read in Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 14. 



XIX. 
THE WOMAN'S CENTENARY ASSOCIATION. 



BY MRS. CORDELIA A. QUINBY. 



IN 1870 American Universalism celebrated its one- 
hundredth birthday. Year had linked itself to 
year into a complete centennial circlet since the day 
that noble missionary of a liberated gospel, John Mur- 
ray, first stepped upon these shores, and began his 
work of spiritual emancipation. Against his own will, 
and compelled by the clear voice of God, in a series of 
almost miracle-working providences, the founder of a 
strange sect in a strange land, spoke the first uplifting 
words of his inspired message. It all reads now like a 
legend or romance — that old wonder-tale of our pro- 
phet shrinking, Moses-like, from his glorious predes- 
tined mission. But though, like the old Hebrew leader, 
reluctant to assume command, he became in an almost 
analogous sense, the pioneer and the chieftain of a 
"peculiar people" in their journeyings through a wil- 
derness; not, surely, amidst natural rocks and deserts, 
but in a domain of the spirit, where frowning dogmas, 
arid, blasting superstitions, were only faintly typified 
and foreshadowed by the mountain fastnesses and sandy 
wastes of Arabia. 



CENTENARY ASSOCIATION, 273 

And now the American church had come out from 
the wilderness. In the good year of grace, 1870, the 
promised land lay full in sight — the land which God had 
promised should be conquered in the name of Univer- 
sal holiness and happiness. To be sure, its Moses had 
died during the journey, but many a Joshua had risen 
up to succeed him, and the ranks of the Lord's host 
stood solid. It was an hour of exultant hope and ex- 
pectation. They paused for a moment to celebrate, 
with fitnesss and impressiveness, the progress which 
they had already measured, and to raise a memorial 
upon that spot, and at that date, to their great leader. 

It was September, 1869. The General Convention 
had convened in the city of Buffalo, N. Y., and were 
deliberating upon measures for raising a magnificent 
sum of money, to be held permanently at the control 
of the convention, and to be known as the "Murray 
Fund." And now dawned the day of the Miriams and 
the Deborahs. The women of the church had always 
labored faithfully, but heretofore in retirement, and, for 
the most part, in silence. But at this meeting the en- 
thusiasm of the occasion nerved them to step boldly 
forward, and take a public and prominent place upon 
the program. They elected to help in securing gifts 
for the stupendous thank-offering in contemplation, 
and organized themselves for that purpose, under the 
significant name of "The Woman's Centenary Aid As- 
sociation." A constitution was then and there drafted 
and accepted. Officers were elected, and a general 
plan for the campaign arranged. The officers of the 
original body were as follows: President, Mrs. Caro- 
line A. Soule; recording secretary, Mrs. D. C Tomlin- 
son; corresponding secretary, Mrs. F.J M. Whitcomb, 
treasurer, Mrs. M. A. Adams; with a long list of vice- 
presidents, one for each state in the Union. 



274 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

The zeal thus enkindled spread with a rapidity and 
certainty that swept within the circle of a twelve month 
the entire territory of the church, setting every woman's 
heart in a blaze of holy love and emulation. With tire- 
less vigor, those brave founders of the order — women 
of brilliant gifts, solid acquirements, and sound sense 
— toiled on, and achieved a success heretofore unpre- 
cedented in the annals of our church. Womanhood — 
Universalist womanhood — had asserted itself, and with 
a beautiful aggressiveness that was justified of all, when 
on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 21, 1870, the Uni- 
versalist women of America held their first national 
convention in the Universalist church at Gloucester, 
Mass., and the overflow of that meeting filled not only 
the vestry, but two other churches. So much for the 
enthusiasm inspired by the movement. Its substantial 
results were not less gratifying. The total amount of 
money raised by the Aid Association was thirty-five 
thousand, nine hundred and seventy-four dollars, and 
twenty-six cents. After deducting the expenses of the 
work and a donation of two hundred dollars to the 
ladies of the Buffalo church, whose building had been 
burned after the convention of 1869, the sum of thirty- 
five thousand dollars and fifty-three cents was given to 
the treasurer of the General Convention for the Mur- 
ray Fund. About thirteen thousand "women had become 
members; and their gifts ranged from one dollar to 
one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, and in one 
instance, one thousand dollars. 

The purpose of the Woman's Centenary Aid Associ- 
ation had been fulfilled. They were now at liberty to 
disband. But the impulse that had been imparted to- 
wards the co-operative and organized effort of the wo- 
men for the church of their common love, was not by 



CENTENARY ASSOCIATION. 275 

any means spent. It was to prove an abiding and cumu- 
lative force in the future missionary enterprise of the 
church. They had tasted the sweets of associative de- 
votion, self-sacrifice and toil, in the largest and divinest 
cause that can enlist human sympathies, and incite 
human action; and a great resolve was born of the ex- 
perience: they would not surrender the opportunity and 
the place they had made for themselves. The woman- 
hood of the church should maintain itself at the height 
already reached, and from there go higher still. They 
would make themselves felt as a distinct, and an indis- 
pensable power for the evangelization of the world. So, 
in the city of Philadelphia, on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 
1871, the members of the Aid Association met and dis- 
banded, to immediately reorganize as a permanent 
missionary body, under the name, so endeared to all 
their hearts, "The Woman's Centenary Association." 
At that meeting a constitution was adopted, prepared 
by a committee appointed for the purpose, consisting 
of Mrs. M. Louise Thomas, of Pennsylvania, Mrs. M. A. 
Adams, of Massachusetts, and Mrs. H. A. Bingham, of 
Massachusetts. Substantially the same officers who 
had served during centennial year were re-elected at this 
meeting, a few changes having been rendered necessary 
through resignations, on account of failing health, or 
the pressure of home duties. 

At the next yearly meeting, held in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, in 1872, the suggestion of a Scottish mission, 
eloquently advocated by Rev. J. S. Cantwell, D. D., 
was heartily welcomed; but no definite action was 
decided upon However, two years later the growing 
interest in Scotland reached a culmination. A few 
friends in that country applied to our General Conven- 
tion for aid, and the appeal was transferred by a com- 



276 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

mittee to " The Woman's Centenary Association." 
The society responded by voting the sum of two hun- 
dred and fifty dollars per annum, to be expended in 
maintaining a mission. Later, a knowledge of the mis- 
application of these funds having reached the General 
Convention, it was voted that the sum be diverted from 
its original channel, and sent directly to the Scottish 
Universalist Convention, which had been organized in 
1875, to be used at the discretion of the trustees. At the 
General Convention held in New York the follow- 
ing year, the subject of the Woman's Centenary 
Association was brought up and fully discussed, and 
finally it was unanimously voted that the Woman's 
Centenary Association should be auxiliary to the 
General Convention in the work of the church. Mean- 
time the Scottish brethren were asking that an Ameri- 
can missionary be sent to them, naming as their unani- 
mous choice, the gifted and energetic president of the 
Woman's Centenary Association, Mrs Caroline A. 
Soule. It was an object to arouse enthusiasm, and our 
women rose to the occasion. The cry, " Come over 
and help us," met with a swift and ungrudging response. 
The money was speedily pledged. The beloved leader 
was ready ; and our missionary began her work in 
Glasgow, Scotland, in 1878. She was sent for the term 
of two years; but she remained there until September, 
1882, in compliance with the urgent desire of the 
Scottish people. She was succeeded by the Rev. 
Marion Crosley, whose term of service expired August, 
1884, when he returned to this country. The Rev. J. 
W. Hanson, D. D., had been elected to succeed Mr. 
Crosley, but the fatal illness of Mrs. Hanson, one of our 
most talented and indefatigable workers, a woman 
whose life was all " sweetness and light," and whose 



CENTENARY ASSOCIATION. 277 

memory is an inspiration, detained Dr. Hanson in this 
country for more than a year later. During this inter- 
regnum the Glasgow parish secured the services of the 
Rev. Mr. Smith, an ex-chaplain of the Established 
Church, who had been deposed for heresy. Early in 
the fall of 1885, Mrs. Hanson " entered into rest," and 
a few months later Dr. Hanson sailed for Scotland, 
beginning his labors in Glasgow, February 28, 1886. 
In 1887 Dr. Hanson returned to the United States, and 
Mrs. Soule, being still there, was invited to resume 
the charge of her former flock. With unflagging interest 
and unremitting sacrifice, this consecrated sister con- 
tinued her pastorate until failing health compelled her 
final resignation in 1892. Meanwhile a small and taste- 
ful iron church had been erected by the society 
in one of the most desirable quarters of the city of 
Glasgow, and Mrs. Soule's successor, the Rev. C. A. 
Garst, of Illinois, a man of a pronounced evangelistic 
type, entered the Scottish field in 1892, under the most 
inspiriting auspices. Meanwhile we had planted our 
Texas mission, which we consider one of our most 
important points of home work. For ten years we 
have assisted our faithful missionaries there with an 
annual contribution of one hundred dollars, gradually 
increasing to two hundred and fifty dollars. This sum 
Brother and Sister Billings are not only truly grate- 
ful for, but inform us that without it, their work would 
have been greatly crippled in effect. 

At the meeting of the Association in Washington, 
D. C, 1873, Mrs. M. Louise Thomas presented the first 
report of the Publication Committee, stating that the 
Tract Department was in working order, and had 
already begun operations. The first series of these 
efficient little " black missionaries" numbered twelve. 



278 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

To these several additions have been contributed, mak- 
ing the total number at present sixty-eight. During 
the twenty-two years of this Association's life, swarm- 
ing myriads of these little living leaflets have been sent 
out by this department, amounting to over 5,000,000 
pages, together with many thousands of denominational 
papers and precious books and pamphlets, scattered 
broadcast over all the continents and the islands of the 
sea, carrying everywhere the gospel of " The Eternal 
Hope." 

At the same session, 1873, the Association became 
an incorporated body, receiving its charter, dated 
September 18, 1873, from the District of Columbia, 
under a special act of Congress. Nine years later, in 
May, 1882, the incorporators met in the City of Wash- 
ington, and adopted measures to secure a new char- 
ter, under a new set of by-laws. This charter is dated 
May II, 1882, to continue twenty years. 

Up to the present time, 1893, the Association has 
had but three presidents, Mrs. Caroline A. Soule, who 
held the office up to 1880; Mrs. M. Louise Thomas, her 
successor, who served till 1891; and Mrs. Cordelia A. 
Quinby, the present incumbent. It has had, in all that 
time, but two treasurers, Mrs. M, A. Adams, who re- 
signed in 1883, and Mrs. M. M. Dean, who succeeded 
her. The present Executive Board are: Mrs. C. A. 
Quinby, president; Mrs M. Louise Thomas, past presi- 
dent; Mrs. C. A. Soule, president emeritus; Mrs M. A. 
Adams, first vice president; Mrs. E. D. Browne, record- 
ing secretary; Mrs. E. L. Sherwood, corresponding sec- 
retary; Mrs. M. M. Dean, treasurer. 

The financial retrospect of the Association is cred- 
itable. During a career of twenty-two years it has col- 
lected a sum amounting to nearly $250,000. Its Perma- 



CENTENARY ASSOCIATION. 279 

nent Fund, whose interest is drawn for current expenses, 
amounts to $12,503. This sum is securely invested, and 
is being continually increased by donations and be- 
quests. A subscription of $1.00 constitutes a yearly mem- 
bership; one of $25 a life membership; while a contri- 
bution of $100 makes one a patron. The disburse- 
ments of the Association have been uniformly wise, and 
as catholic in their distribution as the limited means 
would permit. Two professorships in Buchtel College, 
Ohio, have been established for $40,000, and donations 
have been made to St. Lawrence University, Canton, 
New York; Mitchell Seminary, Iowa; Jefferson Liberal 
Institute, Wisconsin, Goddard Seminary, Vermont, 
and Westbrook Seminary, Maine. The missionary 
work of our church, also, both at home and abroad, has 
been liberally patronized. We have responded, with 
all the readiness our means could warrant, to calls for 
help from many parts of the United States, notably 
Texas, Florida, Kansas, Nebraska and California; and 
we have sent our sympathies with substantial aid across 
the border into Canada, across the sea to Scotland, and 
across seas and continents to faraway Japan, over which 
the light of a glad new sun is rising in this sunset hour 
of the century. 

We were asked to present " the character, claims, 
work and history of the Woman's Centenary Associa- 
tion" of the Universalist church. Thus briefly have we 
given an outline of its history, and this outline neces- 
sarily, though inadequately, involves the character and 
the work of the order. Its claims are as positive as its 
purpose, as just as its spirit, and as persistent as its 
needs. It states with positiveness its purpose, which is 
to bring within its jurisdiction and engage in its active 
service, the entire woman constituency of the Univer- 



280 UN1VERSALIST CONGRESS. 

salist church. It discloses the justice, the integrity, 
the righteousness of its spirit by reaching out hands to 
help lift the veils wherever darkness has settled down 
upon the minds of the people. The spirit of the or- 
ganization gives itself out constantly and unreservedly 
like the air and sunshine, to quicken the consciences 
and to nerve the hearts of those who stand already in 
the light that they may advance " without haste and 
without rest," proclaiming to the multitudes, whose 
eyes are yet holden, the coming of that universal morn- 
ing which is even now breaking over their heads. The 
organization is persistent, consistently so, in its de- 
mands upon the persons and the purses of all Univer- 
salists everywhere. It must have money. It must 
have service. It will knock at the door of every home, 
in every parish, and the women of the household must 
respond. We are only half awake yet, we women, the 
most energetic of us. It is time to shake off this 
drowsiness, and open our eyes to the brilliant possibili- 
ties set before us. " The field is the world," said 
Christ. 

Women of light, in this our day and generation, do 
we not thrill to the glorious challenge, and answer 
back, all together with voice, and heart, and hand, and 
purse, " The world for Christ!" 

Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 14. 



XX. 

WOMAN'S STATE MISSIONARY 
ORGANIZATIONS. 



BY MRS. M. R. M. WALLACE. 



RELIGION knows no sex. We are "all one in 
Christ Jesus." Yet as each part of the whole 
body has its particular function, so in the Christian 
world there is special work for all — men and women, 
the youth, children — each in their own way. All at last 
bring their fruits to one altar, one Father, one Christ, 
one heavenly home. As in the days of old the laurel 
wreath was woven for the poet's brow, so today one by 
one, would we gladly string upon the thread of this 
paper, the pearls of loving deeds performed by devoted 
Christian women. The time allotted to the theme, how- 
ever, will not admit of any elaborate mention. We 
must therefore speak only in general terms of woman's 
labors in the missionary field. 

St. Paul in his epistles speaks often of the great aid 
given him by the women of the early church and calls 
them "My helpers in Christ Jesus." It is needless tore- 
count the well known deeds of woman during those 



232 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

early days of Christianity. Throughout the New Testa- 
ment they are found exhibiting their power and in 
fluence, and today how many heads bow and knees bend 
to the worship of Mary, the representative of divine 
motherhood! The recording angel upon the pages of 
the "Book of Life" writes with pen luminous with love, 
the noble deeds of women, and their self-sacrificing 
labors for the faith they cherish. 

Christianity is not simply a place of worship with 
pastor preaching on the Sabbath day, a Sunday-school 
well organized, and occasionally a "social" or a "confer- 
ence." It is the "religion of Christians," which is some- 
times shown in one way and oftentimes in another. It 
does not spring up in the night to as easily fade away; 
but, like the great oak from the acorn, grows steadily, 
sturdily, ever on and upward, reaching its arms to 
heaven, It is watered by tears and watched by prayers 
and every act of human kindness, every deed of heroic 
daring — love for the unfortunate, pity for the wayward, 
care for the weak — become leaves upon its branches. 

Who, better than woman in her tenderness, her self- 
devotion, can aid in planting the seed? 

Our missionary work in the states can only be 
judged in the progress of the work. It cannot be esti- 
mated in figures. In some states it is organized; in 
others it is not. Therefore it would not be just to any 
to attempt to give statistics from the incomplete ma- 
terial we have to draw from. The story told is always 
the same: "We help struggling churches;" "we care 
for the parish poor;" "we gather together for instruc- 
tion the little ones from the streets;" "we hold meet- 
ings in parlors;" "we hold Sunday-schools where no 
church is yet started;" "we have refitted the church and 
are aiding in liquidating the church debt," etc. Along 



WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS. 283 

all these lines the women of our church have been found 
doing their duty throughout all the states. 

The strong point in these organizations is the fact 
that the women have more time and patience for the 
"little beginnings" that would perplex and puzzle the 
state boards which labor in the larger fields and on a 
grander scale; and like gleaners they will make use of 
the grain left behind by the busy harvesters. They are 
more willing to begin with a small outlook, toiling on 
with more zeal and hopefulness for the final culmination 
of their prayers. Their faith never falters, though the 
way be long and the days dark. They quietly and 
steadily march along saying, " the Kingdom of Heaven 
is at hand." When a church is finally forced to close 
its doors, as sometimes happens, experience shows 'tis 
a woman's hand that holds the key, waiting and watch- 
ing, for the day of better things. 

Many state-workers have found in deserted parishes 
a few devoted women standing ready to pledge them- 
selves to the future, and to renew the work on more 
promising lines. 

In the Universalist church the first Woman's Asso- 
ciation was the one organized in Illinois in 1868, and it 
is still in the field bearing its part of the work bravely. 
This Association has been instrumental by its example 
and advice in forming other associations, and now 
Massachussets, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin and 
California have well organized associations doing good 
work. " In union there is strength," and these earnest 
women banded together to foster and encourage the 
interests of Universalism cannot fail, and will certainly 
be stronger and more powerful because of the united 
effort of many in one direction. 



284 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

In this connection we offer a few words from recent 
letters, recounting in a general way the work of our 
women in the state organizations. 

Iowa reports: " Our work was begun as a woman's 
work among women. The results must be seen largely 
in the improved condition of our cause throughout the 
state. It has been, in fact, a work of reviving pastor- 
less churches and preventing serious loss that might 
occur to our scattered flocks. A retrospective view of 
the field encourages me to believe that the work has 
not been in vain." 

Pvlrs. H. B. Manford, of California, remarks: "The 
women of the state organized four years ago as auxili- 
ary to the State Convention, and have been industriously 
at work, having over one hundred members enrolled. 
The Association is doing a profitable work in the way 
of helping weak societies and distributing our denomi- 
national literature. The Universalist workers will be 
heard from as time goes on." 

Mrs. H. B. Laflin, of Wisconsin, writes: "The work 
of women in our churches can hardly be recorded in 
dollars and cents. In the churches of Wisconsin the 
work of women is most pronounced. The Women's 
Association has been foremost in helping the work of 
the State Convention, and since its organization has 
contributed in membership and subscriptions, $1,764. 88 
to the missionary work." 

In Massachusetts the Woman's Missionary Society 
is eight years old. The receipts hav e been $14,953.48, 
which amount includes $1,218 toward the loan fund for 
the woman's department at Tufts College. This As- 
sociation has paid for home missions $6,433.54, and 
for foreign missions $800. Again the record is: "We 
help struggling churches in whatever way seems best, 



WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS. 285 

assist needy students, and send Universalist literature 
to all parts of the country — reading-rooms, life-saving 
stations and anywhere where there is a call.' 

These are only illustrations of the work of our 
women's state organizations. The record is sub- 
stantially the same everywhere — in Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, wherever our noble women are banded together 
in the work of the gospel. Woman is naturally a 
teacher. She is also by nature reverential. She accepts 
by faith many mysteries, knowing that life itself is 
Something over which no human mind has control and 
that death is unexplained. Therefore she does not 
need to be convinced by argument. She believes, 
and believing with all her heart, by her earnestness she 
can impress the young, lead the old by example and 
precept, teach truth, righteousness and eternal love. 
When this force is organized how powerful the effort, 
how grand the results! 

In the states having no associations the ground is 
covered by the national organization of the Woman's 
Centenary Association, which was organized in 1869, and 
has been doing faithful work ever since. Its noble 
history has its historian in this congress. The value 
of state organizations will be realized as time rolls on. 
And in this work, woman by her courage, gentleness, 
perseverance and faith, has shown herself capable of 
great usefulness. She will work, watch and pray as 
long as life shall last; and reaching out her hands to 
others, help them to carry on the good work, bearing 
the tidings of great joy to the poor, the weak, the for- 
saken. By these efforts the cause will be strengthened 
and established in many new fields. If every state had 
its good women at work, the united effort of all working 



286 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

as one, would bring the waiting multitude to the 
Universal Father. 

There is one fact in connection with these organiza- 
tions that makes them particularly valuable. The con- 
trolling power is within the state lines, and its interests 
are centered there. This may sound selfish, yet it really 
is not. For every strong, self-supporting parish is a 
tower of strength to the denomination, and every strong 
state association that aids in repairing weak parishes, 
makes those churches able to send their contribution 
to the general funds, and so the work goes on, hand to 
hand, heart to heart, each for the other, and God over 
all. 

Lo! a vision appears. The saintly woman whom to 
know was to bless, whose every act was full of loving 
kindness and every thought a prayer. Living to "work 
for Jesus," and dying, we can see her now borne heaven- 
ward on angels' wings. And as the pearly gates wide 
opened are, we hear the voices from within, singing: 
"Well done thou good and faithful servant." "She 
hath done, what she could." "Enter in!" 

Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 14. 



XXI. 
YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHRISTIAN UNION, 



BY JAMES D. TILLINGHAST. 



ONE of the most important events that has oc- 
curred in the Universalist church for the past 
fifty years was the formation of the Young People's 
Christian Union. 

The fault with the Universalist church of the past 
was its lack of interest in the young people and its 
consequent inability to retain them within its folds. 
Realizing this weakness, the General Convention in the 
autumn of 1886 established the Young People's Mis- 
sionary Association, with the object of interesting the 
young people in raising money for the general church 
work. About sixty societies were formed, and did their 
part in educating for the Y. P. C. U. movement, but 
were only partial successes, because they were not the 
spontaneous outgrowth of the young people. 

The first distinctively religious societies of the 
young people of the Universalist church were in the 
State of New York, where Young People's Societies of 
Christian Endeavor were organized at Rochester, Victor, 
Troy and other places, followed by the formation of 



288 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

the Western New York Y. P. S. of C. E. Association. 
It is true that prior to this time there were many young 
people's societies in our church, but none whose avowed 
work was spiritual. The Y. P. C. U. is a lineal de- 
scendant of the Y. P. S. of C. E. and not of the Y. P. 
M. A. or any kindred society. 

In the latter part of 1888 Rev. S. H. Roblin, then 
pastor of the Universalist church at Bay City, Mich., took 
steps toward forming a young people's devotional so- 
ciety, by appointing Mr. Alfred J. Cardall to take 
charge of it. A society was formed with Mr. Cardall 
as president. The society was a success from the start, 
although it was hard to educate the young people to 
that way of being religious; but finally they caught the 
spirit of it, and the spirit grew as they took up practical 
philanthropic work Connected with the society from 
its inception was Mr A. C. Grier, principal of the Bay 
City schools. He is the father of the movement that 
culminated in the formation of the National Young 
People's Christian Union at Lynn, Mass. To his push, 
executive ability and untiring zeal, aided by his earnest 
ready and willing co-laborers in the Bay City society, 
is due our national movement. He is now a minister 
of our church and was recently elected a member of 
the Executive Board of the National Union. 

The success of the Bay City society was so gratify- 
ing, and its members were so impressed with its value, 
that they began to wish that every church in our de- 
nomination might have such a society. 

Rev. Mr. Roblin having suggested that a national 
organization be formed, a committee of five, with Mr. 
Grier as chairman, was appointed to correspond with 
all the Universalist churches in the United States and 



OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. 289 

Canada, proposing the organization of a national 
society. 

February 22, 1889, the committee prepared and 
mailed to every Universalist minister a circular contain- 
ing important questions and stating objects A second 
circular was issued in June of the same year, which 
included a call for a convention to be held the day be- 
fore the General Convention at Lynn, Mass., in the fol- 
lowing October. Soon after this circular was issued, 
Mr. Grier was obliged to resign his position in the 
schools, drop his church work and go West on account 
of his health, which had been broken down by over- 
work. But the work that he had so nobly carried for- 
ward was left in good hands; as a result, the national 
organization will show. 

The first national convention of the young people's 
religious societies connected with the Universalist 
church, began its session on the morning of Tuesday, 
October 22, 1889, in the vestry of the First Universalist 
church of Lynn. Rev. Dr. Pullman, pastor of the 
church, called the meeting to order, and Mr. Lee E. 
Joslyn, of Bay City, was made temporary chairman, 
with Miss N. Jenison, of Lynn, temporary secretary. 

About 140 delegates were present, representing 
thirteen states and nearly fifty societies. Our present 
constitution was adopted; the name, "The Young 
People's Christian Union of the Universalist Church," 
chosen, and the following officers elected for one year: 

President, Lee E. Joslyn, Bay City, Mich.; Secre- 
tary, James D. Tillinghast, Buffalo, N. Y.; Treasurer, 
Miss N. Jenison, Lynn, Mass.; Executive Board, J. 
Thomas Moore, Philadelphia, Penn.; Miss Clara B. 
Adams, Lynn, Mass.; Miss Angie M. Brooks, Portland, 
Me., and Miss Belle Gibson, Chicago, 111. 



290 UN1VERSALIST CONGRESS. 

The Universalist Union, issued November, 1887, as a 
parish paper for western New York, by Rev. L. B. 
Fisher, of Rochester, continued after a few issues by 
Rev. J. F. Leland, of Victor, and in August, 1889, pass- 
ing into the hands of Mr. James D. Tillinghast, of 
Buffalo, was adopted as the official organ of the Na- 
tional Union. This paper is still the official organ of 
the National Y. P. C. U., with Mr. Tillinghast as editor. 
It has been and is one of the greatest factors in the up- 
building of the National Union. 

The newly organized union, by committee, notified 
the General Convention of its formation and submitted 
its constitution and by-laws, which were approved. 
October 23, by resolution, the National Union pledged 
loyalty to the General Convention. During the first 
year copies of the constitution were printed and dis- 
tributed; a model constitution for local unions pre- 
pared, topics for devotional meetings selected, vice 
presidents over seventeen states appointed by President 
Joslyn, and the general work of organization of local 
and state unions pushed forward. 

The first annual convention of the National Union 
was held in the First Universalist church of Rochester, 
N. Y., October 20,21, 1890. The greeting of the con- 
vention was telegraphed to the state Y. P. S. of C. E., 
of New York, in convention assembled at Buffalo; a 
resolution, commending the methods of work of the 
Y. P. S. of C. E. and urging the establishment of a cor- 
dial feeling and Christian fellowship among the young 
people's organizations of all churches, and pledging 
the support and work to promote such relations, was 
adopted; a committee appointed to prepare a design 
for a pin and report to the Executive Board; words of 
cheer and greeting were sent to Missionary Perin, of 



OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. 29 1 

Japan, and a committee to prepare a course of denom- 
inational reading was appointed. 

The officers and Executive Board, excepting Miss 
Gibson, whose place was filled by Miss Mary Grace 
Webb, now Mrs. Canfield, of Akron, O., were re-elected. 
It was at this convention that the movement which has 
established a Universalist church at Harriman, Tenn., 
was commenced. 

The idea of building a Universalist church at Har- 
riman originated with Henry L Canfield, D. D., State 
Superintendent of Churches and Sunday Schools of 
Ohio, and was suggested to C. Ellwood Nash, D. D., 
then pastor at Akron. 

To Dr. Nash is due the credit ofthebeginningand the 
continuance of the work Through his efforts, two lots 
50x190 feet each, in the choicest possible locality in 
the infant city of Harriman, were donated by the East 
Tennessee Land Company, $1,000 pledged by Mi- 
Ferdinand Schumacher of Akron, $555 by residents of 
Harriman and $445 by the directors of the East Ten- 
nessee Land Company, making $2,000 in all Then 
came the national convention of the Y. P C U., at 
Washington, Dr. Nash presenting the Harriman pro- 
ject. 

The convention immediately instructed its officers 
to enter into a contract with the East Tennessee Land 
Company in behalf of the Y. P C. U., to build a Uni- 
versalist church at Harriman to cost not less than 
$5,000; liberal subscriptions were pledged by the dele- 
gates present, and by vote, a committee with Dr. Nash 
as chairman, was appointed to take charge of the can- 
vass for funds, and to secure a pastor for the coming 
church at the earliest possible date. The work for the 
coming year was pushed rapidly forward, eighteen states 



292 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

were presided over by vice presidents, new unions were 
constantly being formed, and the Harriman work was 
taken up with a vigor 

The second annual convention was held in Unity 
church, (Unitarian,) Cleveland, O., August 18, 19 and 
20, 1 891. The officers and executive committee were 
re-elected, a committee to prepare a Y. P. C.U , song 
and service book appointed, and the Harriman com- 
mittee continued This committee reported that aeon- 
tract had been entered into with Rev W H. McGlau- 
flin, of Rochester, Minn., to become the missionary in 
charge, that funds nearly sufficient for the first year's 
salary and the church building had been pledged; the 
balance was subscribed by the delegates and friends 
present. 

Mr. McGlauflin went immediately from the Cleve- 
land convention to Harriman and preached there his 
first sermon the last Sunday of August, 1891. A legal 
and business organization was perfected the following 
month, called "The First Universalist Society,'' and an 
efficient building committee appointed. A larger and 
better structure was erected than was at first proposed; 
the additional money required being subscribed by 
members of the Harriman congregation. The corner 
stone of the building was laid December 2, 1891, and 
the church was formally opened for public worship on 
Easter Sunday, April 17, 1892. The sermon was 
preached by Dr. H. L. Canfield. 

This handsome temple, which contains a parish 
house wherein the pastor and wife reside, is, including 
the grounds upon which it stands, worth at least $10,- 
000. Thus far the church has never been closed on 
Sunday, and the purpose is that its doors shall on that 
day be always open for divine worship, 



OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. 293 

There is a local Y. P. C. U., Junior Union, Sunday 
school, (with 85 members,) and Woman's Missionary 
Alliance. 

The church organization proper was completed on 
Y P. C. U. day, Sunday, January 30, 1892, when thirty- 
four names were entered, and twenty-three persons 
were present and received from the pastor formal wel- 
come of fellowship. The number of communicants re- 
ceived up to July, 1893, is seventy. 

The Harriman church is becoming firmly established, 
has in its membership and congregation much of the 
best brain and heart of the community, engages largely 
in local charitable work, is already a disseminator of the 
gospel of love in adjacent towns, where Mr. McGlau- 
flin frequently holds meetings, and history may yet 
record that this, the first Y. P. C U. mission, has itself 
become "a mother of churches." 

The committee to prepare a design fpr a pin had 
during the year reported to the Executive Board, and 
the pins were placed on sale at the Cleveland conven- 
tion. 

During 1891-92, twenty-one vice-presidents were 
appointed, the membership of the National Union was 
increased, more societies adopted the name of the Y 
P C. U and the work along all lines showed a decided 
advance. 

October 11, 12 and 13, 1892, the third annual con- 
vention was held in the First Universalist church at 
Reading, Penn. The report of the Harriman church, 
given by Mr. McGlauflin, showed that more funds were 
needed to meet past obligation's and for the coming 
year's work. Over $1,000 was pledged for this pur- 
pose. A committee was appointed to secure from the 
Universalist Publishing House the publication of a 



294 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

young people's paper, or to take other necessary steps 
to issue such a paper. 

Upon recommendation of the Executive Board, the 
convention voted to take steps toward placing in the 
field a National Organizer. Towards this object Si 143 
was pledged by the delegates present, and a committee 
appointed to proceed with the further canvass for 
funds, and select and place in the field such organ- 
izer. A National Union at Large was established and 
a Y. P. C. U. Entertainment Bureau and an Invalid's 
Correspondence Bureau were instituted. 

The officers elected were: President, Herbert B. 
Briggs, Cleveland, O.; secretary, James D. Tillinghast, 
Tufts College, Mass.; treasurer, Miss N. Jenison, Lynn, 
Mass.; Executive Board, J. Thomas Moore, Philadel- 
phia, Penn., Miss Angie M. Brooks, Portland, Me., 
Mrs. Mary Grace Canfield, Cincinnati, O., and Rev. A. 
C Grier, Charles City, la. 

Soon aft£r the convention, Miss Jenison resigned as 
treasurer, and Miss Lizzie H. Goldthwaite, of Danvers, 
Mass., was appointed to the office by the Executive 
Board. 

The National Union was incorporated April 22, 
1893, under the laws of the state of Massachusetts. 
Twenty- four states and provinces in the United 
States and Canada are now presided over by vice 
presidents, 15 state organizations, those of Illinois, In- 
diana, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mis- 
souri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
Iowa, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wisconsin, and 240 
local unions are members of the National Union, with 
an individual membership of over 12,000 persons. A 
steady increase in membership, and a more active and 
earnest interest in the cause, has characterized the work 



OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. 29$ 

of the past year. The name, "The Young People's 
Christian Union," is being adopted by a large majority 
of the young people's societies. 

This, in brief, is the history of the Young People's 
Christian Union, from its birth to the present. Four 
years have shown a steady and healthy growth; the 
Universalist church has found in it an auxiliary organ- 
ization of great strength and vigor, ever ready to assist 
when aid is asked The fondest dreams of the little 
band of workers in the Bay City church have been 
more than realized May the movement continue its 
growth, teaching the gospel of love, carrying ever the 
standard of the purest and best type of Christian man- 
hood and womanhood, and may "The Lord watch be- 
tween me and thee, when we are absent one from an- 
other/' 

[Prepared for this volume by Mr James D. Tillinghast, from a "His- 
torical Souvenir," compiled by Rev. Carl F. Henry and Mr. Herbert B. Briggs.] 



XXII. 
WAR, PEACE, AND NATIONAL HONOR 



BY HENRY BLANCHARD, D. D. 



WHOEVER stands in the magnificent capitol of 
Connecticut, at Hartford, sees much to stir pa- 
triotic feeling. In receptacles ranged round some of the 
walls of the lower hall, are the torn and tattered flags of 
thebattlesof 1861 to 1865. Nearby is the bronze statue 
of the war governor, William A. Buckingham. In the 
opposite wing of the building stands the statue of 
Nathan Hale, inscribed beneath which are his words: 
" My only regret is that I have only one life to give for 
my country." The flags make us see the firing on 
Sumter, the gathering of troops, the fields of strife, 
the prisons, the hospitals, the graves, the fall of Rich- 
mond, the great parade, the reunited country. The 
statue of the war governor recalls the consecration of 
the statesmen of those great days. The form of 
Nathan Hale tells the splendid story that the young 
are ready to die for country. Forever honored 
will he be who, forgetting self, is ready to give up life 
for his country's good. The passionate beat of the 
patriot's heart, however, must not put too much blood 



NATIONAL HONOR. 297 

into his brain. He is to see the heroism of the brave, 
but he must see, also, the horror, the barbarism of war. 
Believing in the universal Fatherhood of God and the 
resulting brotherhood of man, he is to ponder the story 
of strife in the past in the hope of the day of universal 
peace to come. 

He will see, first, that war is incidental to the lower 
stages of man's development. Second, that some wars 
are noble, on the part of one of the combatants, and have 
greatly helped the development of mind and soul. 
Third, that peace is the goal towards which all move- 
ments ought to tend, and, fourth, that national honor 
must have a new meaning, accordant with, determined 
by, the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. 
Let us then consider these points: 

I, War is incidental to the lower stages of man's 
development. 

Too much honor has been given to war. Poet, ora- 
tor, historian, has placed it in glowing pictures before 
the minds of listening multitudes. Homer, Shakes- 
peare, Caesar, Motley, and their co-workers, have dwelt 
upon the courage, devotion, patriotism, which war de- 
velops, to such an extent of eulogy that the soldier 
shines in a blaze of glory. The waving flag has hidden 
the blackened corpse. Nevertheless, let us see that 
war belongs to the lower stage of man's progress. 

The student can easily see the genesis of war. It 
springs from the unchecked selfishness of man. Child 
and barbarian want everything for themselves. In- 
dividual, tribe, nation, monarch, all seize what they de- 
sire. It is comical to watch the infant laying predatory 
hands upon everything within reach. It is painful to 
see the . growing boy planning to get the larger share, 
or even the whole. It is interesting to see how tribe, na- 



298 UNIVERSAL1ST CONGRESS. 

tion, aristocracy, oligarchy, monarch, make out reasons 
satisfying to themselves why they take possession of 
what belongs to others. All this comes from the nature 
of man. God has given him self love for his own pres- 
ervation. Self love easily passes into selfishness. The 
warring tribe, or nation, is only showing distorted self 
love in making war upon its neighbor. I do not see, 
therefore, how war could be avoided. It is incidental 
to man's passage from self love to love of others. 
We can have patience with it, but we must not 
praise it. 

2. Some wars have been noble on the part of one 
of the combatants, and have helped the development 
of intellectual, moral and spiritual powers. 

If we had stood with Miltiades on the day he 
pleaded with Callimachus, the war ruler of Athens, to 
cast his deciding vote for battle on the plain of Mara- 
thon, we should have listened to noble words. The 
destiny of America was involved in that struggle. If 
Persia had won on that day of Marathon, there would 
have been no Cromwell, nor Pilgrims, nor United 
States. He who studies the progress of freedom from 
Marathon to Gettysburg sees that upon the casting 
vote of Callimachus for giving battle to the Persians, 
depended the victory of "a government of the people, 
for the people and by the people." Persia was infam- 
ous. Greece was glorious. 

So, too, we see the nobleness of the combatants un- 
der Cromwell's lead against the perfidious Charles. 
Royalist historians have tried to blacken the name of 
Cromwell, but the search-light of modern historical 
investigation shows that the hero of Marston Moor was 
fighting for democracy in consecrated spirit — that had 
the battle been lost by Cromwell, Charles would have 



NATIONAL HONOR. 29c) 

crushed liberty in England and then in the colonies. 
Marston Moor made possible Lexington and Bunker 
Hill. 

Who, in these days, can doubt the nobility of the 
cause championed by Sam. Adams and Patrick Henry? 
The stoutest defender of "peace at any price" may well 
stand silent before the majesty of George Washington 
and the grandeur of Samuel Adams. Our fathers were 
not just to the tories of America. These could give 
reasons for submission to parliament and king. Nev- 
ertheless, purer, nobler spirits never cried aloud for 
war than Otis and Warren and their noble band of co- 
workers. 

Who doubts today, the nobility of the recourse to 
arms when Abraham Lincoln summoned the north to 
battle? There are many of us not yet very old men 
who can remember the arguments for submission to the 
slave power. Their advocates were often of noblest 
natures. The "copperhead" was frequently a lowly 
Christian. But we see now that only arbitrament by 
war could settle such a vexed question. John C. Cal- 
houn, the architect of secession, had built his ideas into 
the brains of the South. Men, honest, learned, relig- 
ious, believed in the right of secession. To oppose 
them seemed almost a betrayal of Christ. But today 
we believe, without a shadow of doubt, that the gleam- 
ing sword of the North was an instrument of God for 
the salvation of the republic. 

When, therefore, one thinks what development of 
mind and soul these wars produced — when he thinks 
of the courage, the self-sacrifice, the planning, the over- 
coming of difficulties, the trust in God accompanying 
war, he knows that horrible as is war, true glory — 
glory of soul — shines above the blackness of battle. 



300 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

When Napoleon, on the morning of Austerlitz, saw 
that the Russians were moving from their heights to 
the field below, his exultation was fiendish. "I have 
them now; I will destroy them," were his words. His 
military genius enabled him to see the awful mistake 
his foes were making. His knowledge of battle showed 
him at once what carnage his artillery would speedily 
occasion. As I see him sitting on his horse and gloat- 
ing over the coming destruction of men, my soul 
loathes him. It was for his own glory he was fighting. 
He, the veneered barbarian, is a sight awful to God and 
to lovers of man. Yet, among the soldiers, what self- 
forgetfulness — what readiness to trust in the leader — 
what courage — what ecstacy in dying — lighted up that 
awful field of Austerlitz! 

And if in such a scene we can see glory in darkness, 
what was that which shone at Marston Moor and 
Bunker Hill? 

3. Peace is the goal towards which all things ought 
to tend. 

Henry of Navarre dreamed of a day of universal 
peace. Ulysses Grant prayed for it. The bravest 
soldiers have always hated war and longed for peace. 

When, therefore, I read of senators and congress- 
men talking about war, I often ask myself, "Have 
these men ever been in battle? Have they wandered 
over its fields in search of wounded and dying, and 
the dead? Do they know what Wellington said of 
war?" When I read speeches that declare the need of 
navies and forts, I marvel that men, professing to be 
Christians, can talk and write as they do about war and 
the impossibility of a speedy coming of a day of uni- 
versal peace. Our duty, as Universalists, is plain. We 
are to say that peace can be universal and it can be es- 



NA TIONA L HONOR. 3° * 

tablished speedily. Our means are education and re- 
ligion. 

We are to teach the youth of our land what is the 
barbarity, the cost, the folly of most wars. I have so 
much faith in the gymnastics of military drill, and so 
much respect for the noble qualities of reverence for 
superiors and obedience to commands, that I am will- 
ing to have the manual of arms a part of the discipline 
of public schools. 

A body of trained citizen soldiers will long be the 
need of our country. I can, therefore, favor our sys- 
tem of. militia. But we must teach our youths and our 
citizen soldiers what is the barbarity, the cost, the folly 
of most wars. To this end, I would have history made 
a far more important part of study than now it is. He 
who knows this will speedily hate war, even though he 
honor some wars. 

Let the student know of the atrocities of Ghengis 
Khan; let him learn of the ferocities of religious wars; 
let him study the deeds of Darius and Xerxes and 
Caesar; let him know well the story of the Thirty Years 
War — the assault of Spain on the Netherlands — the 
Indian wars in America instigated by Christian French- 
men, and his soul will be in revolt against war. Let 
him be taught the colossal cost of armies even in peace 
— the waste in war. Let him know that in 1618 Ger- 
many had sixteen millions of people; in 1648 only 
four — that it took more than a hundred years to raise 
as many cattle as there were at the beginning of that 
awful war, and though he glories in Gustavus Adol- 
phus, he will hate war. 

Let him see how often, after bloody battles, the 
treaties of peace put back contestants into the same 
territorial relations as before, though to gain the new 



302 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

land was the very object of war. And as he reads and 
reads, and ponders, he will say: "Was ever greaterfolly 
committed than by monarchs and statesmen dragging 
nations into war?" 

For myself, therefore, the desire is passionate that 
our high schools and academies — -with which the edu- 
cation of so many of our young people ends — and our 
colleges — wherein such great opportunities may be 
found to teach men what war is — shall give largest 
place to history, since by it alone can the barbarity, the 
cost, the folly of war be fully shown. This word is 
needed. Science is so entrancing today with her mag- 
nificent achievements that history is not studied as it 
should be. And since the large majority of our makers 
of laws and their executors, are graduates of colleges, 
the need is imperative that young men, whose bent is 
towards law and politics, should be specially trained in 
knowledge of the past. I am convinced that the op- 
portunity of college life to produce strong conviction 
concerning war — and indeed many other evils — is not 
sufficiently recognized. "We must turn to these seats 
of learning," said an English scholar, "to teach men to 
live in the spirit." He did not ignore the church, but 
he knew what daily study and intercourse with profes- 
sors can accomplish in enabling young men to think 
high thoughts and plan noble deeds. If power were 
in my hands, I would have the study of Israel and 
Greece and Rome and Germany and America made so 
large a part of the college curriculum that the graduates 
of all our great institutions of learning should go forth 
with a burning hatred of war. 

We must rely, also, on our religion. We teach the 
Fatherhood of God — the brotherhood of man — the ul- 
timate salvation of all men. We believe that action in 



NA TIONAL HONOR. 303 

this life has large influence upon the spiritual condition 
of the life to come. We warn men that selfishness, 
greed, lust, love of power, will make awfui mark on 
character. We teach that men begin the next life as 
they leave this. We are to appeal to men, therefore, 
to outgrow the low estate in which they think chiefly 
of their own rights instead of their duties to others. 
We are to ask them to see the glory of service. 

We are to tell them that grasping after possessions 
and power is base. We are to bid them die to their 
lower selves in order to live to their higher selves. 
Accomplishing this, we can finally reach the realm of 
politics. Oftentimes men are noble as individuals, but 
ignoble as members of the body politic. They will be 
kind at home and honest in business, but tortuous in 
political life. 

It is for us to say that life is not a divided realm — 
one part for God and one part for devil. We are to say 
to men: "The nation must be as unselfish as the individ- 
ual. The individual bully is despised. Why shall not 
the national bully be as much contemned?" We are to 
demand of our churches, therefore, a stronger emphasis 
on ethics. To sing, to pray, to worship God, is good. 
To see the sweetness and light of Jesus Christ is de- 
lightful. But history shows us how divorced worship 
has often been from morals. 

The great cities, the acts of congress, show us how 
often the golden rule is considered an "iridescent 
dream." The old cries, "our country right or wrong," 
and "manifest destiny," do not resound as once they 
did, but nevertheless, too many statesmen seem willing 
to approve what they, as individuals, would disown. 
The duel has gone out of fashion. How much it cost 
to abolish it, he who reads may learn. Why shall not 



304 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

war — the duel between nations — be as much condemned 
by those who say there is one Heavenly Father and 
one family of mankind? 

Pardon me for a personal allusion. Asked by a 
member of the American Peace Society, while I was a 
pastor in Indianapolis, to preach on peace, he told me 
I was the only minister who would consent to do so. 
Was my heterodoxy more accordant with Christ than 
the city's orthodoxy? As I think of the silence of the 
pulpits concerning the demand of our religion that we 
should work for peace, I feel that we have not used 
the power of Christianity as we should. 

Let us who believe in Universalism resolve anew 
that we will do all we can to hasten the day of universal 
peace. Let us depend on education and still more on 
religion. 

4. We are to put a new meaning into the words 
"National Honor." 

It is curious to study the escutcheons of the warriors 
of the past. We see the image of the lion, the bear, 
the boar. We see how utterly unperceived is the glory 
of service to the weak. One prince, indeed, has a noble 
motto — the Prince of Wales — "Ich dien," I serve. But 
as you look on the pictures of the coats of arms and 
read their mottoes, you see the savage instinct of fight, 
of violence, of robbery, constantly manifesting itself. 
The Tartars worshipped their scimetars. Thousands of 
Christians did the same in reality though their knees 
were bowed to Christ or virgin or saint. And if today 
you listen to speeches in German Reichstag, or French 
Assembly,or English Parliament, or American Congress, 
and hear the words "National Honor," you will speedily 
perceive that usually they mean the sensitiveness which 
will strike, instead of the love that will serve. We 



NATIONAL HONOR. 305 

must put new meaning into these words. We are to 
say calmly, gladly, triumphantly: "National Honor 
means service to the world. It means that America 
wishes to help. It means that she overlooks offense, 
conscious of strength — eager to serve." 

Some senators, doubtless, would be "fatigued" by 
such language. Some representatives would say, "A 
nation is not a church." Others would declare: "War 
is the natural condition of nations." 

Some time ago I asked a distinguished statesman to 
advocate a certain measure. His reply was: "Oh! I 
am only a politician — a representative of public opinion. 
You must be the agitator for ideas." A feeling of sad- 
ness came over me. I thought: "Oh! if I were in your 
place, I would not be content to be a representative of 
public opinion. Nothing less than being a creator of 
public opinion would satisfy me." 

We must be patient. There is a small truth under- 
lying the words I have quoted. The politician must 
represent. All the more need, then, that we should 
create public sentiment. All the more need that our 
pulpits should resound with the words: "National Honor 
means universal service." 

Aristotle said: "Politics is the science of living to- 
gether nobly." To do this is honorable. But hitherto, 
very largely, has man's language shown that honor 
among nations meant touchiness — the doubled fist — 
the swift blow. 

Would that Aristotle could have presided in all as- 
semblies discussing war! 

Milton's ' wish for England was that she might 
teach nations how to live. Surely that must be the 
wish of Americans for America. To teach she must 
live nobly. To do this, she must not bully small na- 



306 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

tions, nor affront great ones. She must see that God 
has chosen her to serve. She can do this by establish- 
ing arbitration and by working for a universal court of 
nations. Surely it was honorable to seek decision of 
our claims concerning Behring sea by the assembly in 
Paris. Surely it was honorable to accept gratefully 
the final judgment. By so doing we, indeed, are serv- 
ing. Other nations will follow our example and some 
day I fondly hope, we shall have a world's tribunal be- 
fore which shall be brought all causes in dispute. 

For the discussion of this theme of war, peace, and 
national honor, this season of the World's Fair, in this 
great city of Chicago, is auspicious. The nations of the 
world are communicating with each other by the ex- 
hibition of their products in the White City. The Par- 
liament of Religions brings them together as they tell of 
their beliefs. In such a hour, it is meet that we should 
feel, as never before, the solidarity of mankind, and 
long for, and work for, the federation of nations. The 
great gun of the Krupp's manufactory is in its place in 
yonder fair. It tells what man has been able to do in 
creating instruments for man's destruction. But there, 
also, is the gigantic search-light with its 200,000,000 
candle power, showing what man has done to use the 
wondrous agent we call electricity, to illumine dark- 
ness and fog and storm. That is a fitter symbol of the 
coming times than the gigantic gun. On one of Louis 
XIV's cannon were the words, "The argument of 
kings." Our search-light shall declare it is the argu- 
ment of the people. The time is coming when we shall 
have no need of cannon. The time will never be on 
earth when we shall have no need of light. Invention 
amazes; arts increase; the twentieth century will reap 
great results from the marvelous achievements of the 



NA TIONAL HONOR. 307 

last twenty years. Invention, arts, I solemnly believe, 
will make useless bayonets and sword and cannon, but 
light, more light, in material form, will only symbolize 
the light which thought shall give to the great prob- 
lems of society. If all the electric thoughts of this 
last decade of the nineteenth century could blaze out 
in light, as does the great search-light yonder, it would 
show us the path of the future upon which we are ad- 
vancing — the path, growing brighter and brighter unto 
the perfect day, wherein shall be made real the vision 
that has forever haunted prophet and poet of "peace 
on earth, good will to men," — the day when war shall 
be no more, and that nation shall be greatest which 
best serves the world. 

Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 13. 



21 



XXIII. 

CRIME, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, 
INTEMPERANCE. 



BY REV. OLYMPIA BROWN WILLIS. 



THE problem of evil has been the stumbling block 
of philosophers and theologians from the be- 
ginning of human investigation. Why the earth, which 
seems made to be an expression of divine love and 
wisdom, a revelation of infinite beauty, glowing with 
the tints of the morning and rhythmic with the thou- 
sand voices of nature, should at the same time be made 
the scene of disaster, of pain, of crime, and death; 
why man should at once be an angel of light and love, 
and a demon of devouring wrath, are questions upon 
which men have theorized and debated for ages, with- 
out arriving at any results at all commensurate with 
the effort put forth. And after all the researches that 
have been made, after the philosopher has speculated 
long and painfully upon the profound principles of the 
universe, after logic has paced the whole course, 
through the consecutive steps of the syllogism, from 
premises to conclusion, we come at last to this: that 



CRIME AND ITS REMEDIES. 309 

we cannot know and must rest in the simple faith that 
God is good, and has created all things in love, that 
love must bound the entire range of creation, and that 
good must at last overtop and rule all things. 

With this faith alone we can "solve the riddle of the 
painful earth," and only by means of this faith can we 
answer the difficult questions which are suggested by 
crime, intemperance, and their associated vices. It is 
only in the spirit of love for man and with faith in his 
capabilities, that we can rightly deal with those unfor- 
tunate classes, who are not only bringing destruction 
upon themselves, but endangering the peace of society, 
and imperiling the most sacred of human interests. 

Every thoughtful observer recognizes the fact that 
a large proportion of the misery of the world results 
from crime. Because of violations of law the world is 
filled with pain; terrible tragedies are enacted which 
appall the hearts of the bravest and chill the blood of 
the most enthusiastic; poorhouses and jails, prisons 
and scaffolds, riots and revolutions, turn the earth, 
which might be a paradise, into a pandemonium, and 
make insignificant even the infernos of the great poet. 
Homes are despoiled, hearts are broken, social life 
permeated with distrust and doubt, and business made 
insecure, because of crime. It is not enough, as an ex- 
planation of these things, to shirk the responsibility of 
human action by laying all guilt at the door of Adam, 
who in turn casts upon Eve the odium of his disobe- 
dience; "The woman that thou gavest me, she did 
eat." Nor is it a sufficient cure to say, "I have laid all 
my sins on Jesus.'' The same system which explains 
the origin of evil by referring all the wickedness of 
man back to poor Mother Eve, finds an adequate remedy 
for human transgression in the vicarious suffering of 
Jesus Christ. 



310 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

Other explanations, such as that of two opposing 
and equal deities, one a great principle of evil, and the 
other of good, both striving to rule the earth, and ob- 
tain control of the human race, or the modern supposi- 
tion that a great archangel fell from heaven and be- 
came a ruler in the regions of hell, whence he is ever 
putting forth his efforts to draw men from God, thus 
thwarting the purposes of the Almighty himself, be- 
long rather to primitive periods, when the passions 
of men were personified and ascribed to deities, who 
were represented as mingling in the affairs of the 
world, bringing victories and untold blessings upon 
their friends and overwhelming their enemies with dis- 
aster and ruin. 

In the light of Christian revelation, the Universalist 
recognizes a God of love, who in the beginning created 
all things, and declared it all very good; a God omnipo- 
tent, ruling the universe in the spirit of benevolence, 
rewarding and punishing his children for their good. 

"He wounds them for his mercy's sake, 
He wounds to heal." 

"No chastening for the present is joyous, but griev- 
ous; nevertheless afterwards it bringeth forth the 
peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them that are 
exercised thereby." 

We must look upon man and human society as an 
unfinished work. We see but in part; a small segment 
is before us for our consideration and for the comple- 
tion of the circle we must look into the vast cycles of 
the future. The acts of men are a series of experi- 
ments, some of them wisely made, in conformity with 
the laws of the universe and resulting in immeasurable 
joy and blessedness; others, done at random, without 
regard to law, or in wilful disobedience, and bringing in 
their train, disappointment and failure. 



CRIME AND ITS REMEDIES. 311 

The criminal is one of the great human family; he 
is a man, a child of God. The sacred record tells us 
that God created man in his own image, that is, he was 
given intellect, and a moral nature, ability to discrim- 
inate between good and evil; he was endowed with 
spiritual powers and capacities, which being developed, 
would enable him to grow up into the "fullness of the 
measure of the stature of the perfect man," who 
should at last appear in the beauty of holiness, in the 
likeness of the divine. We must regard man as created 
for holiness, endowed with an insatiable longing for 
better things, and placed here on earth for purposes of 
development, to learn the laws of his being by obser- 
vation and experience, to endure the results of his own 
conduct, until he shall gain that wisdom which shall 
teach him to cease to do evil and learn to do well. He 
must listen to the divine commands breathed into his 
soul, until he shall learn to find in complete obedience 
to God's will, the fullest liberty; in consciousness of 
the divine presence, the real heaven; and in union with 
the divine life, his true self. The transgressor is an 
experimentorwho has blundered. Men think to enrich 
themselves, to gratify passion, to get good, by wrong 
doing. The transgressor finds himself confronted 
everywhere by the avenging spirit of a violated law, 
and all nature, from the shining stars above our heads 
to the minutest molecule under our feet, is in combina- 
tion to foil his plans and thwart his iniquitous pur- 
poses. Failure, defeat, and ruin, wait for him at every 
corner. He is his own worst enemy and he carries 
about his own condemnation with him. He is him- 
self the principal witness, the inexorable judge, the 
uncompromising jury, and the merciless executioner. 
His condition appeals to our sympathy while his con- 



312 UNIVERSAL1ST CONGRESS. 

duct calls for our condemnation. With this view of 
the criminal, as a mistaken and erring man, but still 
a child of the great All Father, capable of excellence, 
and destined to final salvation, we ask how a Christian 
government should punish crime, and what means a 
Christian people should use to eliminate intemperance 
and the vices that follow in its train, to banish crime, 
and bring in the reign of peace, truth, and righteousness ? 

In the first place it must be conceded that retribu- 
tion does not belong to human courts. God has not 
appointed any man as his vicegerent to punish a 
brother man. Human judgments must always fail of 
the requirements of absolute justice. Human vision is 
too limited to mete out retribution. 

"Judgment is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord of 
hosts." 

"Who knows the heart, 'tis he alone, 

Decidedly can try us; 
He knows each chord, its various tone; 

Each spring— its various bias; 
Then at the balance, let's be mute, 

We never can adjust it; 
What's done, we partly may compute, 

But know not what's resisted," 

Our punishments then can properly seek to accom- 
plish only two objects, namely, the protection of so- 
ciety and the rescue of the criminal. Heretofore, 
criminal codes have concerned themselves chiefly with 
the former. Man is bound up in relations with his fellows 
and the evil that men do, reaches from circle to circle, 
until it extends to the remotest ramifications of social 
life. The instinct of self preservation, naturally sug- 
gested in early times, that the criminal should be se- 
cluded, imprisoned, or put to the death, hence the 
death penalty, being the easiest and safest, became the 
usual method of disposing ot the wrong-doer. 



CRIME AND ITS REMEDIES. 313 

The severest doctrines of the old dispensation fur- 
nish the example followed by human legislatures: "An 
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood, 
death for death." 

The spirit of retaliation characterized the courts, 
and the judges were most bitter avengers. The cruel- 
ties of a Jeffreys and the iniquities ot the inquisition, 
were justified by the desire to protect society from the 
evil influence of the wrong-doer. The smallest crimes 
were visited with death, and there was nothing more 
severe with which to punish the greatest. In the time 
of Blackstone there were in England, one hundred and 
sixty different offences punishable by death. This has 
now been reduced to two or three, while in our own 
country, murder is the only crime punishable with death. 
The humane doctrines of religion taught by the Uni- 
versalist church and modifying the theologies of all the 
churches, have left their impress upon legislation and 
our law-makers are now recognizing the fact that they 
are not warranted in taking life even for the protection 
of society. They are beginning to see that they owe a 
duty to the criminal, who is often the result of artificial 
and absurd conditions of society, enforced idleness, 
ignorance and evil associations, which are the usual 
precursors of crime. As a man and a brother, as well as 
a victim of our civilization, the criminal has a claim 
upon the charitable consideration of legislators. 

Experience has demonstrated that the death penal- 
ty does not lessen crime. On the contrary, by exciting 
the imagination and brutalizing the feelings of the 
people, it tends to increase the evil and to demoralize 
the public conscience; while thoughtful Christian 
people are realizing that human life is too sacred and 
mysterious a gift of God to be placed in the hands of 



314 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

any human court. "Unto God, the Lord, belong the 
issues from death." No. human power has a right to 
take that life which God gave and which it is his alone 
to demand. 

Statistics gathered by Rev. Charles Spear, Bovee 
Dodds, and others of the Universalist church, present 
many cases in which the death penalty has been inflict- 
ed upon those who were afterwards proven to be inno- 
cent, and whose broken life no power could recall. 
Their researches have shown that the death penalty is a 
failure as a means of protecting society, for while one 
criminal has been removed, the influence of the execu- 
tion has created a dozen more, and thus multiplied the 
evil. They have shown that the death penalty is vin- 
dictive, unjust and generally ineffectual to accomplish 
the object sought. Through the efforts of these noble 
Universalist men, the death penalty has been abolished 
in many of the states of our country, and all are coming 
to see that society can best be protected by rescuing 
and reforming the criminal. 

In some states, institutions for the reformation of 
the unfortunate classes have been attempted, but these 
are few and incomplete, and are considered, as yet, in 
the experimental stage. Is it too much to ask of a 
Christian civilization that it shall invent and adopt 
some system of prison discipline which shall make our 
penal institutions the means of saving thesinner; places 
where the condemned man may learn to feel the wick- 
edness of the course he has pursued; where he may 
have such education as will stimulate a desire for holi- 
ness and enable him to seek a better life? 

The criminal is a sick man and he needs the most 
wise and careful treatment of the physician of souls. 
Not sentimental pity, nor foolish pampering, which 



CRIME AND ITS REMEDIES. 31$ 

might cultivate a deceptive self-complacency, but regu- 
lar and thorough discipline, wise instruction, and such 
training as would promote industry and prepare him 
for self-support. The term of punishment might be 
made to depend on good behavior. His earnings might 
be invested and kept as an endowment for him on leav- 
ing the prison, or sent home to supply the wants of a 
needy family. 

Those spiritual advisers most versed in the dietetics 
of the soul should be employed to train the moral fac- 
ulties and cultivate a sense of individual responsibility. 
Business forms and useful trades should be taught, so 
that upon leaving the prison, the man should go forth, 
not brutalized by evil associations, nor benumbed by 
idleness, nor pauperized by unremunerative years, but 
fitted for usefulness and prepared for a self-respecting 
manhood. 

A few of these reforms in prison life have been at- 
tempted. England in her penal colonies in NewSouth 
Wales has tried a system, similar to that outlined above. 
The reports of those having charge of the prisons have 
shown thatalarge proportion of the prisoners, after their 
release, became reliable, industrious and useful citizens. 
In some states in this country where reformatories 
have been established for certain classes of criminals, 
it hasbeen found that over eighty per cent, of the men 
committed went out to live good and useful lives. 
There can be no doubt that the greater part of those- 
who belong to the criminal class might under such fa- 
vorable conditions as are practicable today, be saved to 
usefulness and a respectable manhood, and had we suf- 
ficient discrimination, skill and patience, all of them 
might be reclaimed. Such a work would be worthy of 
a civilization based on the Christian doctrine of love. 



316 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

It is a disgrace to this age of reform which claims 
to have done so much for the temperance cause, that 
as yet there is no adequate provision made by law, 
either for punishing, reforming, or providing for the 
drunkard, who is left to roam the streets of our cities, 
frightening timid women, following any mad caprice 
which may suggest itself to his diseased brain, a con- 
stant source of trouble to the police and a continuous 
and terrible drain on the public treasury, often intrusted 
with the transaction of important business, and even 
permitted to attend to affairs of state; while, after all 
our lectures and petitions, and tears and prayers, our 
only tangible remedy for drunkenness is the skin deep 
Keeley cure, and that kept as a means of private gain 
and therefore accessible only to those who can com- 
mand money. When shall we learn that we need not 
only a cure for the physical disease, but a tonic for the 
soul? When shall we recognize that spiritual forces 
must combine to lift the man into the atmosphere of 
higher influences, rousing his moral perceptions and 
placing him on the high vantage ground of moral 
truth? Why should we not have asylums for the in- 
temperate, to which those convicted of wilful and 
habitual drunkenness should be condemned for a term 
of years, during which they should not only be treated 
for the physical disease, but for the spiritual as well, 
while industry should be enforced and the weekly earn- 
ings sent home for family support. Such asylums 
would be a great relief to drunkards' wives all over the 
land, who, often in the midst of poverty, with children 
to support, are spending their time in ceaseless anxiety 
waiting on the paroxysms of drunkenness of the husband 
and the father, suffering untold fear, besides nightly 
watching and daily toil. 



CRIME AND ITS REMEDIES. 317 

Were the drunkards of the country safely housed 
in such retreats, the crimes committed by men when 
under the influence of intoxicating liquors would be 
saved. Both public and private business would be 
much better done than now, and a stigma would be 
placed upon drunkenness that would do more to re- 
strain men than all the temperance lectures and tem- 
perance pledges in the world, and which would help to 
strengthen, educate and develop in the drunkard a bet- 
ter and higher standard of character. Surely the reve- 
nues that the state derives from the traffic in intoxica- 
ting liquors would be sufficient to support such asylums, 
and there could be no more just and appropriate use of 
such funds. 

A state that replenishes its treasury by the making 
of drunkards ought at least to take care of them after 
they are made. We provide asylums for the insane, 
we punish the criminal, we support the poor, we edu- 
cate the idiot, but this man who combines some or all 
of the characteristics of all these is left without care, to 
destroy himself, harass society and multiply crime. 
Alike for the drunkard and the criminal punishment as 
a means of reformation is what we seek. The drunken, 
the vicious, the criminal classes, can all be saved by 
that charity which suffereth long and is kind. Chris- 
tian love expressed in legislation could most effectually 
protect society while saving the sinner. 

Asylums, reformatories and educational prisons are 
the great needs of our civilization; and the tendency of 
the humanitarian spirit of the time is toward such 
provision for the criminal. We pity the blind and the 
deaf, and the state supports the asylum where these de- 
fects of the body may be overcome; how much more 
important to heal obliquities of the moral vision and to 



318 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

open the spiritual ear to the harmonies of the universe. 
Those who are morally and spiritually blind, and 
deaf, and idiotic, and paralyzed, should be the objects 
of our commiseration and care. 

The utilitarian may say that our state prisons are 
already sufficiently expensive, and to add education for 
the intellect, spiritual culture and physical training, 
would needlessly multiply expense and lay heavy bur- 
dens upon society for the sake of the undeserving. 
But, if by this means we shall lessen crime, the ultimate 
effect will be to save expense and relieve the state of 
the effects of criminality. If the ex-convict can be 
sent out no longer a hardened wretch to spread his 
malaria abroad, but a redeemed man, to take his place 
on the side of those who are working for righteous- 
ness, the money expended in his reformation will be a 
good investment. But money cannot be weighed in the 
balance with character. To what better use can the 
wealth of the world be applied than the building up of 
a higher manhood? A single soul is worth more than 
all the wealth of the world though it were piled moun- 
tain high. The gold and silver stored away in nature's 
great treasure houses, which has so often served as a 
temptation to the weak, over which wicked men fight, 
boards of trade speculate, and legislators wrangle, must 
be transmuted into that brightest of all the precious 
metals — human virtue — the grandest transmutation 
that has ever been wrought. No outlay is extravagant 
if it can save the criminal and lessen crime. 

But while we seek to throw needed guards and helps 
around the mentally and morally infirm, we must be- 
ware lest we fall into the delusion of many Utopian 
dreamers who would make the government a perpetual 
guardian and all the people lifelong minor children. 



CRIME AND ITS REMEDIES. 3 10, 

Such theorists have pictured a condition in which, by 
an equitable distribution of the wealth of the world, 
by a thorough organization of society, by wise regula- 
tions, people should be kept good and all temptation 
removed, leaving almost no possibility of crime. The 
demand for laws prohibiting the sale of intoxicants, is 
allied to this class of preventive measures, which would 
make men good by external surroundings. But all such 
methods lack the essential element in the development 
of character, namely: the appeal to individual ac- 
countability. Men must be thrown upon their own re- 
sources; whether out in the great free world or in the 
asylum for mental and moral cure, individual responsi- 
bility must be recognized and cultivated. 

The child continues irresponsible, careless and 
characterless so long as the parent decides for him and 
governs his actions. He becomes a man when he is 
thrown out into the world to bear its burdens, to do its 
duties and share its responsibilities alone. Everyone 
must bear his part in working out the great experiment 
of human development. There is no royal road to the 
kingdom of heaven. We cannot make men good by 
organizations. Resolutions unanimously passed in 
great assemblies do not touch the inner life. The great 
resolution must be passed in the soul of the individual 
and inscribed there in letters of living light, God and 
the angels being the witnesses. 

There is no real growth in virtue except as the will 
is strengthened, and the higher nature installed in au- 
thority, the lower and the sensual being brought into 
subjection. Each man must learn, if need be, by the 
most bitter experience, that disobedience to law is 
physical, mental and moral ruin. In the rebound from 
the extreme severities of the past there has, of late, 



320 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

been a tendency to lionize the criminal, surrounding 
him with a delusive glamour which has sometimes ob- 
scured the loathsomeness of his iniquity. Especially 
has this been true in the temperance work, where bad 
men and the worst of drunkards, have sometimes been 
put forward as leaders and assumed the role of public 
instructors, much to the demoralization of society and 
the injury of the cause. 

There has been too much sentimental sympathy for 
the drunkard, as though he were an innocent, helpless, 
and harmless child, to be protected, watched and 
flattered, instead of a man, to assert his manhood, and 
overcome temptation. The sooner we treat habitual 
and willful drunkenness as a crime, punishing it as a 
crime, and visiting upon it the odium which attaches to 
crime, the sooner will the saloon-keeper find himself 
without an occupation, and society be redeemed from 
one of the most fearful curses that ever fell upon the 
race. The true temperance reform must begin in the 
soul of the individual. Scientific temperance instruc- 
tion in the schools is well, but if we have not at the 
same time trained the will and educated the moral sense 
we shall have done little toward saving the child from 
intemperance and the train of vices which follow in its 
wake. Our methods of prevention must be along the 
lines of such education as will develop a sense of 
responsibility, a recognition of moral law and a power 
of will that shall give to the world a generation of men 
strong to stand against the evil, to overcome unfortu- 
nate conditions, and to mold circumstances to their 
needs. 

What more fitting work for the Universalist Chris- 
tian than to seek and find some tangible and practical 
means of applying our grand doctrines of the love of 



CRIME AND ITS REMEDIES. 321 

God and the worth of man, to the reformation of the 
criminal? We count among our victories the fact that 
to the efforts of representatives of the Universalist 
church is due the repeal of the death penalty in many 
states, and it is to our honor that it was the Universalist 
church that led the way in that great wave of temper- 
ance agitation which has swept over this country for a 
century and a half. Shall we not add a new gem to 
our crown, and carry forward still farther the great 
humanitarian work begun by our fathers, by securing 
charitable, wise and improving conditions for the 
criminal? 

The criminal is a man, aye, sometimes a woman, to 
whom has been given a soul — that soul capable of 
salvation from its present degradation; a man, a woman, 
placed here for discipline, that they may at last show 
forth the beauty of holiness, and reveal the love of 
God. No work for this erring child of the great All 
Father can be in vain; there is no room for doubt or 
despair. 

Both Scripture and the laws of the natural world 
show us that the ultimate triumph of the good is 
inevitable; that God has purposed, and in his own 
good time will accomplish, the salvation of all souls, 
and that his love reaches to the poorest wanderer on 
the face of the earth. There is no possibility of dis- 
couragement, but rather let statesmen and philanthro- 
pists rejoice to be the instruments of the Lord in this 
work of human redemption, counting it the greatest 
glory to be the agents of Him who "maketh his angels 
spirits and his ministers a flaming fire." 

As of old, the artists took their subjects from the 
rude and homely figures of the street, and by the 
magic power of genius, transformed and glorified them, 



322 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

presenting at last perfect specimens of symmetry and 
beauty, so the Christian of today may from these poor, 
benighted, storm-tossed, misguided men or women, by 
the magic power of love, develop symmetrical and 
beautiful characters. We are not alone in this struggle 
with the gross and the material. Divine inspirations 
intervene to stimulate the intellect, touch the heart 
and illustrate the power of law. All the forces of na- 
ture are with us. Spiritual and unseen powers are also 
with us. "The whirlwind of miracle blows continually." 
The spirit of the Lord broods upon the earth and great 
inspirations are born. A Messiah comes, bearing the 
torch which lights us through the gloom, making clear 
the path of duty, and giving assurance of final victory. 
He shows us how to strengthen and confirm the good, 
to cast out the demons of selfishness, pride, greed, and 
lust, until at last the divine man shall stand forth, 
made perfect in love and clothed in garments of holi- 
ness. As one has said: "Civilization is manhood de- 
veloping itself from within, outward; human intelli- 
gence radiates, wins, subdues, humanizes matter — sub- 
lime domestication." The material must be subject to 
the spiritual; this mortal must be dominated by the 
immortal; this corruptible must put on incorruption. 
Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. ij. 



XXIV. 

CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND BUSINESS AND 
POLITICAL SUCCESSES 



BY REV. A. N. ALCOTT. 



THE only real problem here is how to -get 
ethics into business and politics. No one will 
dispute that ethics ought to pervade, and would better 
pervade, both these spheres of human activity. The 
feasibility of this, taking the world as we find it, is not 
so clear. There is a wide-spread, though quiet, scep- 
ticism, among business men and politicians, to which 
there are many honorable exceptions, as to the work- 
ability of religion in modern practical life. This scep- 
ticism chills their moral ardor and represses their inter- 
est in, and enthusiasm for, religion. It hinders faith, and 
consequently the disposition prevails too much to rele- 
gate religion and its beautiful hopes as to the moral 
nature of man, to some distant future not on an earthly 
shore. 

Rev. Dr. Josiah Strong pertinently and truly says: 
"Here is the most serious question of our times — is 
Christianity able to establish right relations between 



324 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

man and man? The scepticism which is most danger- 
ous to Christianity today is not doubt as to the age 
and authenticity of its sacred books, or distrust of its 
time-honored doctrines, but the loss of faith in its vital- 
ity." That is it. A grand moral life, in all life's af- 
fairs and relations, is, it is strongly suspected, not prac- 
ticable here in this world, or compatible with success, 
however desirable or becoming it might be. 

Look at the sentiments which have prevailed at one 
time and another that prove the existence of this feel- 
ing. Sir Robert Walpole, an English politician of the 
eighteenth century, coined the saying, "Every man has 
his price." The historian Tytler, speaking of Sylla, 
the Roman, utters the sentiment that is privately cur- 
rent among many men as to the hopelessness of strict 
ethics in the struggles of life: "Sylla lived in evil 
times when it was impossible at once to be great 
and to be virtuous." It is well-known that Napoleon 
thought it necessary to appeal to the lower self-interest 
of men in order to attain his ends. He desired prac- 
tical men in some such sense as we hear of "practical 
politics." He despised ideol'ogists of every species. 
But Napoleon died on St. Helena and ideology has 
given France a republic. Tytler is answered by the 
life of Marcus Aurelius, who in that same ancient and 
evil Roman age, governed the Roman empire, and so 
bore him, in the midst of the tumults of military life, 
and the turbulence and intrigues of the civil state, that 
his piety and morality, his manhood and character, as 
well as his glorious successes, have been immortalized. 
In Metternich's time, so common was untruth and deceit 
in diplomacy, so necessary was it thought to be, and 
truth so unexpected, that this great statesman only 
needed to tell the truth at Paris in order to mislead. 
Truth was more diplomatic than insincerity. 



CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 32$ 

All this shows the perhaps unconfessed, but real 
beliefs of many men. And so the grave question arises: 
Can Christianity be made a living, working, realized re- 
ligion in daily human affairs? Can men succeed and 
strictly practice it? Questions of theological doctrine 
are at present as nothing to the world in comparison to 
the importance of this question: Is Christian ethics, as 
a path to success, workable in business and politics? 
Christianity itself, as an aggressive religion, must stand 
or fall, move on to grand conquests or pause in defeat, 
by the practicability or the impracticability of its moral 
ideals in this energizing world of ours. It has come to 
that. Henceforth, according as the world's decision 
shall be, will our religion be more and more, either a 
toy to comfort and amuse men's imagination in a meas- 
ure, or a real, living, vital power and force, sought for 
in the hand to hand struggles of human life. Christi- 
anity is offered to us for use here. Can we use it? Can 
it be made clear that Christian ethics is the only sound 
political economy, using that phrase in its broadest and 
most comprehensive sense, as well as the highest moral 
beauty? Can it be shown that all human interests, 
moral, and material and social, are in perfect harmony? 
And this, not that we should follow the ethical for self- 
ish reasons, or to gratify ambitious purposes, but that 
we may discern in the grand economy of God the pro- 
found concord of all forms of human well-being. What 
shall we say to the scepticism which in effect denies 
the affirmative reply to these queries? 

1. Note the scope of Christian ethics as contem- 
plated by its original teachers. 

A carpenter founded and a tent-maker taught Chris- 
tianity and its ethics. Both were business men, therefore. 
They were aided by fishermen and a receiver of cus- 



326 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

toms, the latter a political appointee. All these were 
business men. The nation's politics, moreover, was a 
part of each one's religion. The Jew put his politics 
inside the sphere of his religion, and put the spirit of 
his religion inside his politics. Both business and pol- 
itics, then, were originally included in the scope of 
Christian ethics. And the general rules of business 
men were these: "Not slothful in business, fervent in 
spirit, serving the Lord." "Ye shall do no unrighteous- 
ness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in 
measure; just balances, just weights, a just ephah, 
and a just bin shall ye have." The general rules of 
politics were these: "Moreover, thou shall provide out 
of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of 
truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them, 
to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of 
fifties, and rulers of tens.""There is no power but of God; 
the powers that be are ordained of God." Civil govern- 
ment, therefore, according to Christianity, is an ordi- 
nance of God, a law of man's nature, and perfect right- 
eousness should pervade its constitution, and its ad- 
ministration, that is to say, its politics. And as cover- 
ing both business and politics, as well as all other hu- 
man relations and affairs, we further find this general 
rule in its doctrine: "Therefore, all things whatsoever 
ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so 
to them, for this is the law and the prophets." The 
Jewish business men and statesmen, therefore, who 
founded Christianity, thoroughly believed in the prac- 
ticability of Christian ethics in both business and pol- 
itics. And profoundly believed in this, too, in an 
age when the world in general was far more rude, vio- 
lent, cruel, corrupt, deceitful, intriguing, wicked and 
savage than the world now is, Against the scepticism 



CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 3 2 7 

of which I speak, therefore, lies the prestige of Moses 
and all the prophets, of Jesus and all the apostles, and 
the endurance of their ideals through the most trying 
periods of history, and the most perplexed circum- 
stances of human life for twenty centuries, yea for 
thirty-five centuries. 

What shall we say to this scepticism? 

2. This belief of Christianity in the practicability 
of ethics and in its compatibility with success in 
life, is warranted, and surprisingly reinforced, by 
an almost unconscious human conviction in other 
and unsuspected quarters. The common law, which 
is a monument of the world's best reason and com- 
mon sense, proceeds on the theory that ethics is 
workable in all practical relations and affairs, Ethics 
is the very spirit and substance of it. Again statute 
law and equity jurisprudence both assume the same. 
A republican form of government likewise assumes it, 
and deliberately proceeds to build itself on the possi- 
bility of strict justice, equity, fraternity and civil equal- 
ity among men. Human society, morever, necessitates 
the ethical. Its integrity and existence depend on it. 
Its nature involves and implies it. Once more, civiliza- 
tion assumes it. The soul of truth which inhabits the 
whole civil fabric, and legal frame of modern time, is 
this ethics. And this soul of truth is most happily ex- 
pressed in those beautiful precepts of Justinian: "Jus- 
titia est constans et perpetua voluntas jus suum cuique 
tribuendi." "Juris praecepta sunt haec, honeste vi- 
vere, alterum non laedere, jus suum cuique tribuere." 
And originally this was arduously thought out in a 
much ruder age than ours, and one other than Chris- 
tian, and it was to be a practical, every-day rule among 
men. Finally, Universalism believes this ethics so 



328 UN1VERSALIST CONGRESS. 

practicable on earth and in the universe, that it will at 
hist conquer all evil, and all souls, and unite all men 
in one brotherhood, and the unethical so impracticable 
that eventually, it will be wholly expelled from earth 
and the universe of God. Christian ethics, therefore, 
finds a strong bulwark in all these great forms of the 
world's instinctive, intuitive conviction, reason and 
common sense. The world has always instinctively 
depended on this ethics for its own uplifting, perfec- 
tion and progress. It is confessedly its only hope. 

What shall we say to this scepticism? 

3. This instinctive confidence in ethics as the only 
true path to success has a secret. The teachers of 
Christianity discovered and expressed this secret. 
Modern science has abundantly and indisputably con- 
firmed it. The key to the proper solution of all that 
this theme involves — ethics, business, politics, the prac- 
ticable, the impracticable — is found in the fact of both 
Scripture and nature, that human society is a unit. Hu- 
man society is not. an aggregate of human atoms. It 
is an organism. The universe as a whole, we now know, 
is not an aggregate of parts, but an organism. 

The Divine One, as Scripture and nature teach, in- 
habits it as its life. The great truth of liberal Chris- 
tianity is the truth of the divine immanence. In the 
material universe, because it is an organism, and not 
an aggregate of parts, every material atom not only 
serves itself, but necessarily serves all others, and all 
others necessarily serve it. So in the lesser organism 
of human society we find the same natural law. The 
natural function of the human being is not only to serve 
himself, but also to serve all others. And all others are 
to serve him. These natural duties may be avoided, it 
is true, because the human being, unlike the material 



CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 329 

atom, has an option; because he has a volition. But 
his neglect of these duties, from whatever cause, is none 
the less a war against nature. The unethical, therefore, 
is everywhere, at all times, in every instance in which 
its use is permitted, a two-edged sword which, by a 
necessity of the case, at the same time cuts the one 
against whom it is wielded, and him who wields it. 
Does it ever offer, then, a very promising path to suc- 
cess? That human society is an organism, and not an 
aggregate of human atoms, is exquisitely expressed by 
the carpenter, the founder of our faith: "That they 
may be one, even as we are one." His apostle, the 
tent-maker, puts this solidarity in this manner: "For 
we are members one of another." Therefore, the ethi- 
cal relations between us are morally as close and vital 
as the relations of the physical parts of the human 
frame. "As we have many members in one body and 
all members have not the same office, so we, being 
many, are one body." 

Now, suppose that we are unethical in business or 
politics in order to succeed. What are the conse- 
quences? Could any one tell it better than Paul? 
" Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer 
with it, or one member be honored, all the members re- 
joice with it." Marcus Aurelius thus puts this truth: 
" That cannot be good for the bee which is bad for the 
hive." Emerson varied it a little: " That cannot be 
good for the hive which is bad for the bee." At one 
and the same time it works both ways. If the uneth- 
ical were really practicable, it would disorganize and 
destroy human society. Just to the extent to which so- 
ciety remains from age to age intact does it demonstrate 
the unethical to be impracticable. Society is compelled 
to overthrow the unethical in preponderating degree in 



330 UNIVERSALIS!' CONGRESS. 

order that itself and its members may live. The indi- 
vidual and society are one, because society is an organ- 
ism. The man who is unethical in business and poli- 
tics in order to succeed, is not only unethical against his 
own moral nature, but against the other part of him- 
self — society.. He who cheats or defrauds in business, 
or corrupts, bribes or falsifies in politics, really cheats, 
defrauds, corrupts, bribes or falsifies against a natural 
part of himself — the other and all others. His uneth- 
ical conduct will not only directly injure others but in- 
evitably react indirectly through those others against 
himself. Sylvester Judd said: "I had as lief be 
damned myself as to see another damned." To which 
the true response is, whether it be religion or business 
or politics that is in question, one is damned anyhow if 
another is, and there is no escape. So, in view of the 
fact that society is an organism, we need a new defini- 
tion and ideal of success in order to make it accord 
with this fact. It will be a definition and ideal created, 
not by fancy, but sternly necessitated by a stubborn law 
of nature. Success, in order to be real success, must 
be altruistic as well as individualistic. Two sides are 
involved always and not only one. Pure selfishness 
and pure individualism cannot be true business or true 
politics. We must pull down this old, disgraceful, 
stained and tattered rag misnamed success, and run up 
in its place a new flag, which shall proclaim that noth- 
ing in this world deserves the name of success which, 
while it wins the dollar or the party victory and office, 
does not honor the victor's moral nature, serve the 
social organism of which he is a vital part, and respect 
the God who has given us life. According to the 
standard by which men too often judge success in 
business and politics it is really but theft in the one 



CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 33 1 

case, under the forms of legitimate exchange, and in 
the other, fraudulent usurpation of other's rights inside 
the legal frame, forms and rules of the state. A man 
does not succeed, but disastrously fails just in propor- 
tion to the moral hurt he inflicts on himself, the social 
hurt he inflicts on society, and the spiritual hurt he 
causes to God. What Plato so justly asks con- 
cerning business may, with equal force, be asked con- 
cerning politics: " Is there any one whom it avails to 
take gold unjustly, if some such thing as the following 
happens, if, while he is taking the money, he is at the 
same time subjecting the best part of his nature to the 
worst?" 

And it may as well be added here that in business 
and politics, truth, honesty, equity and fairness also 
establish character, which, in the long run, becomes an 
indispensable and potent factor in all successes. And 
the power of this factor as a genuine force, instead of 
a weakness, in business and political life, will be real- 
ized the moment we remember that no man loves the 
unethical in these or in any other places except for his 
own use. The instant he discovers it in another, even 
though he be willing to employ it for his own ends, he 
becomes that other's mortal opponent for life. There 
is no pla*ce for the unethical in this world but in secret 
corners. Men hate it, their own use of it excepted, 
like a snake. But truth and honesty surround man's 
character with a glory, unabashed and unashamed in 
broad day, and make it a wonderful power for every 
species of success. It furnishes the confidence — 
cement which is absolutely necessary, moreover, to give 
stability and solidity to business and political life. It 
is its only enduring foundation. This gone, all is gone. 
These facts alone demonstrate the practicability of the 



33 2 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

ethical, and the impracticability of the unethical at all 
times and in all places. What Phillips Brooks says of 
the work of the ministry, therefore, is just as true of 
business and politics. " He is saved from one of the 
great temptations of the ministry who goes out to his 
work with the clear and constant certainty, that truth 
is always strong, no matter how weak it looks, and 
falsehood is always weak, no matter how strong it looks." 
The able philosopher, Trendelenberg, clinches the 
truth I have endeavored to develop under this head 
when he says: " The state is the universal man in 
the individual form of a nation. * * * The eth- 
ical task of man is to realize the idea of his nature. 
Man develops his human nature only in the state and in 
history." 

What shall we say to this scepticism? 

4. The true nature of gains in business and of tri- 
umphs in politics is perfectly compatible with strict 
ethics in the successes. Take business. There is 
abundant gain to men in business from the increment 
of original production, from their own labor, which has 
created the product, and from the additional advantage 
of exchange, without fleecing. Or, the gain may be 
had from service rendered in facilitating exchange. If 
one produces, or has more of a certain thing than he 
needs for his own use, he wishes perhaps to exchange 
it or sell it to his fellow for something else. Each 
man, by means of such transactions, may be enriched 
by others in forms of value he cannot himself create, but 
which he can exchange his own product, means or ser- 
vices for. In a fair exchange of values, one value ex- 
actly the equivalent of another, as far as cost of pro- 
duction is concerned, may be far more advantageous to 
me than the value I give for it, and this latter value far 



CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 333 

more advantageous to another than the one he sur- 
renders in exchange to me. So that, though the ob- 
ject of business is profit, the exchange ought to make, 
and may make, a profit, not off others, but always to 
others in every transaction. Thus the nature of pro- 
duction and exchange is compatible with profit and 
with strict ethics on both sides at one and the same 
time. It will thus steadily build up and enrich all the 
people in a state. 

Take politics. Business is in order to sustain life; 
politics is in order to govern life well in the state. 
There are two sides here also, that of the individual 
citizen, and that of the state as a whole. There ought 
to be, and there may be an honorable and pure service 
of the state, which is by far the greater side, and also, 
at the same time, there may be a personal gratification 
to him who can serve it well. There is nothing here in 
the nature of the case incompatible with ethics. In 
the triumphs^ of parties, and in the determination of all 
public laws and policies, reason, truth, light, and fair- 
ness may determine the majorities. Webster's definition 
of politics may be realized: "That part of ethics which 
has to do with the regulation and government of a 
nation or state, the protection of the citizens in 
their rights, with the preservation and improvement of 
their morals." Politics, then, is not necessarily a 
game. 

This analysis, which discloses the two-fold end of 
business, viz., the profit of both sides at one and the 
same time, and the two-fold end of politics, viz., the 
gratification of the honorable ambition of the individual 
citizen, and the patriotic and pure service of the state, 
shows how harmonious with the requirements of ethics 
the real nature of business and politics is. Men in 



334 VNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

business should limit themselves to the fair and honest 
profits which accrue in the nature of the case from 
trade, and in politics to majorities obtained, ambitions 
gratified, and offices won by truth, reason, right, and 
a good cause. The one is only the path of Christ's in- 
dustrial righteousness; and the other the fathers' 
deliberate theory of the republic. 

Now let us note for a moment how so-called 
"practical politics," and exclusive devotion to self have 
worked in history. Napoleon relied on selfishness in 
men, and appealed to it to control them, and to attach 
them to his interests. And as for him, his supreme 
devotion was not to the state but to himself. But in 
the long run, not his guns, not his whiskered squadrons, 
not his selfishness, nor his dependence on self-interest 
in others could save him from the Nemesis of simple 
ethics. His fall was as tremendous and irretrievable as 
his first ascent was high and great. A little before him 
there was a Washington. Whatever his honorable per- 
sonal ambitions were, his supreme devotion was to the 
state. He depended on the pure, the patriotic, the loyal 
in men, to attach them to himself and his cause. He 
wrought neither by intrigue nor deceit, but by honesty, 
frankness, righteousness and truth, and not being neces- 
sitated so to do, made not a single dollar of pecuniary 
gain off his country for eight years of arduous service 
in war. Refusing all the imperial trappings of royalty, 
though these were within his reach, he won through self- 
abnegation, devotion to the nation, moral nobility and 
pureness, a grand success that has made his name for- 
ever a brilliant and imperishable star. Napoleon took 
the unethical; Washington the ethical path to success. 
Take another instance. Julius Caesar adopted the un- 
ethical as his path to success. He stood on the banks 



CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 335 

of the Rubicon and said: "If I pass this small stream, 
in what calamities must I involve my country; yet if I do 
not, I myself am ruined." That was the pure selfish- 
ness of it. He took the "practical" method of get- 
ting to Rome, and of becoming chief of the state. He 
crossed the Rubicon and went there with his army. 
Did he not succeed? Yes, for a moment. But out- 
raged liberty sent twenty-three dagger thrusts into his 
body, and notwithstanding it had been publicly and 
officially declared sacred, and a circlet of laurel sym- 
boling its inviolability was worn by him, his blood, as 
he fell in the Senate House, bathed in red streams the 
base of Pompey's statue. Later, Marcus Aurelius, in 
the same great Roman state, gave himself nobly to the 
nation instead of basely to himself, and achieved a 
most glorious and notable triumph as a prince worthy 
of imperishable fame. 

There is a remarkable illustration nearer home. 
Abraham Lincoln chose the ethical in politics; Jefferson 
Davis the unethical as a path of success. The one de- 
voted himself wholly to his country; the other selfishly 
to himself. The one achieved a magnificent reward 
and success; the other an everlasting disgrace and in- 
glorious failure. In all these instances we see the 
natural working out of the ethical and the unethical in 
politics. What shall we say to this scepticism? 

Lastly, the time-element must be used in the 
measurement of success in order to determine whether 
it really be success. A momentary or temporary suc- 
cess may not be a real success. "Nothing succeeds like 
success," it is said. To this we must now add, no success 
succeeds in the long run that is not strictly moral. If 
I succeed in knocking a man down, do I not succeed? 
But if he gets up and knocks me down and keeps me 



336 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

there, do I really succeed? The time-element must 
enter before we can give a right answer. We have had 
a false doctrine of success which has been the ruination 
of thousands. It is a doctrine which makes it consist in 
temporary success. Let us not forget that ethics is an 
eternal Nemesis, and has resolved many an apparent 
momentary success into actual, eventual failure. The 
remote, as well as the near consequences of actions are 
necessary to make up the whole case. A disease must 
have time to run its course. A lie may work for a short 
time, but its eventual discomfiture is sure. Bancroft 
says: "A moral principle is tested by the attempt to 
reduce it to practice." William M. Tweed succeeded 
for a time by means of corruption. His was "practical," 
not "Sunday school politics." He got great power. 
He got great riches. But he also at last got jailed. 
He escaped to Spain. But he was confronted with his 
own photograph the instant he stepped on the Spanish 
shore. He was brought back, recommitted to Ludlow 
and died there in disgrace. Can we say that he suc- 
ceeded? In marked contrast with this man was George 
Jones, who was offered $5,000,000 for the evidence in 
his possession which proved the guilt of Tweed, the 
iniquity of the Tweed "ring," and caused its downfall. 
He nobly, and to his immortal honor, be it said, refused 
the money in the interests of justice, and municipal 
well-being. His worthy act made an eternal success of 
his life. 

The forged decretals were a temporary success. But 
were they a success in the long run? In the end they 
were exposed to the immense loss and shame of the 
church. Was this success? 

The reaction of the unethical on society to its vast 
injury is forcibly illustrated in both business and 



CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 337 

politics, at one and the same time, by the institution of 
slavery at the South. Thousands of men were success- 
fully kidnapped, their toil was successfully enforced. 
Chains were successfully imposed on millions. But 
not only was this success a constant social and agricul- 
tural curse during its continuance, but the unethical 
industry at length produced rebellion ; came near 
ruining a nation ; cost North and South billions of 
dollars, more money than the slaves ever earned; cost 
moreover thousands and thousands of lives, the agony 
and tears of 8,000,000 homes, the strain of a four years' 
civil war, and left a blight on soil and on hearts and 
minds in the land of the orange blossom, that has not 
yet spent its withering and baneful force. Was this 
unethical business, this unethical politics, a success, 
measured by the yard-stick of time? 

Take the brilliant but unethical successes of Louis 
XIV. of France. Under the leadership of. Conde, 
Turenne and Luxembourg his armies won victories 
abroad which placed France at the head of Europe and 
filled her rivals with awe. The apparently successful 
and proud Louis said: "L'etat c'est Moi." But were 
these real successes? France literally collapsed under 
the burden of the boasted triumphs and victories. She 
was precipitated by them into a Revolution which 
cost her thirty successive years of civil disturbances 
and wars, thousands of necks severed by the guillotine, 
throes of national and individual anguish, and a con- 
test for a generation with all Europe. It was the 
natural effect on society of the brilliant successes, 
which in the light of the consequences were but splen- 
did failures. Mignet declares: "The wounds of France 
were hidden by laurels; her groans were drowned in 
songs of victory. But the fact became evident that the 



338 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

very successes of despotism exhaust its resources and 
consume its future ere that future has arrived." Were 
these, then, real successes? Shall we call that success 
which destroys the victor? 

Lecky, the historian, says, uttering the sentiment 
and belief so common among men: "The histories of 
ancient Rome and of not a few modern monarchies 
abundantly prove that a career of consistent rapacity, 
ambition, selfishness and fraud may be eminently con- 
ducive to national prosperity." Could there be a falser 
judgment? The case of France refutes it. And when 
the yard-stick of time is applied to the Roman success 
itself, after the principles on which it had proceeded 
had had a sufficient period to work out their natural 
and legitimate consequences on a scale which was 
world-wide, what do we see? In the end divisions, 
dissensions, anarchy, corruption, inanity and rottenness 
among her debauched and voluptuous people and her 
60,000,000 slaves, and inglorious Rome, 

"Rocks in the light wind, and crashes to earth. 

Her blown fragments strewing the place other birth." 

How erroneous is the judgment of men that there 
are sometimes evil eras and ill circumstances when the 
ethical in human actions and life is impracticable. It 
is a dictum utterly unfounded and false. Christian 
ethics will work far better even among savages than 
deceit, dishonesty and intrigue. This was abundantly 
demonstrated in the Quaker dealings with the wild 
Indians of North America. If ethics is impracticable 
anywhere as a means of success in business and politics, 
must it not be among the disciples of the fire-brand, 
tomahawk and scalping knife? And if ethics will work 
among such men in business and politics with unmarred 
success, will it not work anywhere? Bancroft thus 



CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 339 

describes the belief of the Quaker: "The nobler in- 
stincts of humanity are the same in every age and in 
every breast. * * * A spiritual unity binds together 
every member of the human family, and every heart 
contains an incorruptible seed capable of springing up 
and producing all that man can know of God and duty 
and the soul." With such a faith William Penn made 
a treaty of peace and friendship with the Pennsylvania 
Indians under the open sky, in the shade of the trees, 
and without oaths, signatures or seals, but with only 
the sun, river and forest as witnesses. Of course that 
treaty was soon violated, because it was "Sunday 
School politics!" It was made with wild, bloodthirsty, 
revengeful, cunning savages as one of the parties. 
The Quakers were the only ones indeed among all the 
settlers who tried such equity and manliness. The 
other settlers took the other and more popular course. 
What was the issue? Bancroft relates: "New England 
had just terminated a disastrous war of extermination; 
the Dutch were scarcely ever at peace with the Algon- 
quins; the laws of Maryland refer to Indian hostilities 
and massacres which extended as far as Richmond. 
Penn came without arms. He declared his purpose to 
abstain from violence. He had no message but peace 
and not a drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by an 
Indian." So affirms the illustrious historian. And it 
has been related how in New England, when in the 
time of the Colonists' wars with the savages, these red 
men at midnight on their way to burn and slay and 
scalp, would pause as they passed the Quaker cottages, 
press their dusky faces against the window panes and 
peer in to see if the sleepers were there and then pass 
on leaving them unharmed and in peace. Why? Those 

sleepers in their relations with the Indians were 
23 



340 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

believers in and practicers of Christian ethics as the 
most practicable and the most successful politics and 
business. If, then, it be true that "a moral principle is 
tested by the attempt to reduce it to practice," experi- 
ence in this case, in the midst of the most trying, cruel 
and evil times, proves the entire superiority of Chris- 
tian ethics over every other principle as a path to suc- 
cess in the practical relations and affairs of human life. 
Such an experiment places the doctrine beyond all 
possibility of successful dispute. It is forever and 
everywhere true, as Goethe said: "When I cannot be 
moral my power is gone." 

Hall XXXIII, Art Institute, Sept. 14. 



XXV. 

THE CONTRIBUTION OF UNIVERSALISM 
TO THE WORLD'S FAITH. 



BY JAMES M. PULLMAN, D. D. 



IT is with much reluctance that I claim your atten- 
tion at this late hour. But as you will not let me 
off, I will follow the example that has been set me, lay 
aside my written paper, and try to give you its purport 
briefly. 

I select five things as representing the contribution 
of Universalism to the faith of the world, namely: 
Faith in man; faith n the essential beneficence of evil; 
faith in the spiritual and organic unity of the race; faith 
in the interminableness of man's progress; and faith in 
a noble and brilliant future for all humanity. 

I begin by throwing away certain assumptions. It 
is not claimed that these large beliefs are the invention 
or discovery of the church which is represented here 
today. Universalism adopts and aims to universalize 
them. Neither is it claimed that essential Universalism 



342 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

is new. Its modern forms are a development of the old 
faith in an adequate God who is equal to the solution 
of His problem without an eternal catastrophe. 

Universalism was defeated in the fifth, and again in 
the sixteenth century; so that the modern Universalist 
movement is the third attempt in Christian history to 
introduce these broad and generous faiths into the 
spiritual culture and life of the world. 

I. Faith in Man. It is astonishing how barren the 
Christian creeds are of any expression of faith in Man 
— the highest organism in the visible creation. We be- 
lieve that man is created in the image of God, and is 
able to know and to do his will. Man is not a worm, a 
slave, a wreck, but a developing being who began low 
down, and is on his way up. He is not a ruin, but a mine, 
full of yet undeveloped riches. His career is not one 
of restoration simply, but of growth. He is a being of 
sublime capacities — God's fellow-worker, co-operator 
and agent, through whom the divine purposes are 
wrought out on earth. God made the world, but he 
did not finish it — he set man at that task. God fur- 
nishes the forces, the arena, and the constant inspira- 
tion; man does the work, and in doing it he develops 
the one thing that God does not create — character. 
Man's conquest of himself is exhibited in the develop- 
ment of his language and literature, his laws and gov- 
ernment, his morality and humaneness, his organization 
of society As Martineau says: "The human com- 
monwealth, with its hierarchy of mutual service, its 
army of tamed passions, its invisible guard of ideal re- 
straints, its traditions of heroism, its hopes of great- 
ness, its sympathy with the moral life of the world, is 
the highest product of the providence of God, and the 
most impressive witness to the possibilities of man." 



UNIVERSALISM AND THE WORLD'S FAITH. 343 

And exactly in parity with man's conquest of himself 
has been his conquest of nature. He has changed the 
surface of the earth, and built his homes, temples, and 
highways everywhere; tamed its fruits and animals to 
his purposes, moulded its matter to his desires, and 
trained its forces to his will — making great nature both 
his trusted master and his willing servant. On this sub- 
ject I need say no more, since there stands today, al- 
most within sound of my voice, an exhibition, gathered 
from all quarters of the earth, of man's conquest over 
nature — a great and shining witness to the splendor of 
his material achievement. Greater than all that he has 
done, is the modern man himself, with his growing 
eagerness to serve humanity, his worship of moral 
ideals, his visions of the perfected man, his contempt of 
death, his assurance of a larger career in worlds to 
come. The new creed of the world, whether written or 
not — the source of the stir and power of modern life — 
is faith in man. 

II. Faith in the Beneficence of Evil. Evil is the 
challenger of man's strength. It says: "Rise up and 
overcome me." Pain is stimulus; arousing man's ut- 
most energy and contrivance to modify or vanquish it. 
Pain is the spur that overcomes apathy and selfishness. 
The pain-martyrs are benefactors. The spectacle of 
their sufferings inspires man to some of his noblest 
deeds. The stolid indifference of nature to justice and 
love awakens man to insubordination and rebellion 
against the cosmic order. For man belongs not to the 
cosmic but to the ethical order, and is here not to sub- 
mit to the cruelties of nature, but to resist and over- 
come them. Resistance to moral evil, too, has unlocked 
and developed the noblest energies. Man's sturdy 
and augmenting antagonism to all forms of evil is proof 
of an essential divineness in his nature. 



344 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

The retributive forces are beneficent in their dis- 
criminating ruthlessness. They demonstrate the moral 
order. By the return of my deeds upon my head I am 
made aware that there is somebody in the universe who 
cares which way I go. The moral nature within me 
corresponds to the ethical intent of the universe; and 
all the hells are God's tribute of respect to the powers 
and freedom of his creatures. Pain is the prolonged 
birth-pang of higher powers, and the conflict with evil 
is but the fair price of life and perfected character. 

Note, too, the persistence of moral force. Far back 
in the ages of the fire-mist, there began a struggle for 
physical order against chaos and darkness. This old 
earth is scarred all over with the marks of that conflict. 
Finally, the forces of order triumphed; and on the 
stable arena thus secured, man appeared, and began the 
struggle for moral order against natural and moral 
evil. An immense ethical energy was embodied in a 
race which did not know how to give up the struggle. 
Baffled, disappointed, exiled, trampled on, ground to 
powder, they never gave up; but,' holding fast to their 
inborn faith, they rebuilt again and again their shat- 
tered empire. Finally, the iron hand of Rome crushed 
out their national life, and then the persistent moral 
energy of this race incarnated itself in one man — Jesus 
Christ. Him they killed as dead as they could, and 
buried as securely as they could; but he sprang from 
his grave, seized the moral sceptre of the world, and 
has wielded it over sixty generations of earth's 
strongest peoples. Moral force is persistent and in- 
vincible, and evil brings it out. Evil is the challenger 
and developer of the strongest energies of our race, 
and in this its function is beneficent. 

III. The Organic and Spiritual Unity of the Race. 
Seven-tenths of the race are not to be dismissed from 



UNIVERSALISM AND THE WORLD'S FAITH. 345 

our sympathies as children of the devil. The devil is 
not a creator. All men are of one blood, and it is 
God's blood that is in them, not the devil's. The re- 
ligions of the world are all based on the same funda- 
mental verities and essential needs, but with vast ac- 
cretions due to race differences and local conditions. 
There is the "rod and candy" religion for child-minded 
men, and the lofty-motived religion for more developed 
peoples — alphabet religions and philosophy religions — 
but one great meaning underruns them all — they are all 
God's religions, and they mean conformity to the moral 
order. The select and selfish heaven of a class must 
be given up. "Heaven's gate is shut to him who comes 
alone." We are an eternal and indissoluble brother- 
hood. We cannot resign nor emigrate. The strong 
must learn to help the weak, the wise the foolish and 
the good the bad, until all are strong, and wise, and 
good. A new perception of the structural and essen- 
tial unity of the race is the core of the new world 
movement against the preventable evils of life, 

IV. The Interminableness of Man's Progress. All 
human progress — material, intellectual, social — depends 
upon the degree of moralization. The struggle for ad- 
vancement is essentially a moral struggle, and it cannot 
be limited by the physical event of death. The whole 
moral universe is the arena of this great conflict. 
"Things in heaven, and things upon the earth, and 
things under the earth" are implicated in it. The mag- 
nificent drama of the conflict of light with darkness 
cannot be crowded upon this little stage of earth. 
Man's moral career is not confined to this narrow span 
of years — it is only begun here. Man's sublime capaci- 
ties are not exhausted, they are only whetted in this 
short life, Neither does God deploy all his redemp- 



346 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

tive forces upon this limited field. Theologians have 
wrangled over what they call "eschatology" — the doc- 
trine of the last things — the last judgment, the last 
heaven, the last hell, as though all the moral business 
of the universe was to be wound up and its accounts 
closed in a few brief years or centuries. But the at- 
mosphere in which the visions of Dante and Milton 
crystalized is wholly changed; the new knowledge has 
shown us the illimitableness of the universe and of life — 
there are no "last things" in sight! No dogma about the 
final outcome of things in an illimitable order can 
longer command interest or belief. Man's progress is 
interminable. There are no known finalities in the 
career of a moral being forever living and forever free. 

V, The Eternal Hope. The soul of progress has 
heretofore been "a confident belief in a brilliant and 
happy future of humanity." Some degree of this great 
faith has always given energy to man's efforts. Un- 
formulated, obscured, often unconsciously held, always 
alloyed with the trivial or tremendous creeds of the 
system-makers, — this eternal hope has, nevertheless, 
borne humanity onward and upward, — the soul of its 
power and progress. Modern Universalism is the effort 
to disengage this soul of the world from its creedal 
obscuration, trace it to its source in the bosom of God, 
and apply it to human need and aspiration. Religion 
is the voice of God in the soul of man, bidding him for- 
ever aspire. 

We know what a profound gulf separates us from 
those hidden shores upon which the full fruition of this 
eternal hope must be realized. But every bright hope 
is the beginning of its own fulfillment; and every great 
faith creates the object of its desire. Get the world to 
believe in a noble future, and it will have a noble future, 



UNIVERSALISM AND THE WORLD'S FAITH. 347 

— it will begin at once to build it. Make theUniversal- 
ist hope strong enough, and it will fulfill itself, there 
will be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth 
righteousness. The creeds of selfishness and despair 
have had their day and performed their function. The 
world now needs the larger and more generous faiths — 
which create the new heart and the new spirit. A gulf 
of deepest mystery surrounds this island-earth on which 
we dwell. We must build within ourselves the bridge 
of faith, which alone can span the wide abyss Let me 
illustrate what I mean by the figure of the cantilever 
bridge. A cantilever is a bracket. A cantilever bridge 
is a double or balanced bracket. When the gulf to be 
spanned has a reachable bottom, we can build our piers 
upon it, lay the beams of our bridge over them, and so 
cross the chasm. Where the gulf is too deep, or the 
waters too swift for this, we can erect solid towers on 
both shores, swing our suspension bridge between them, 
and so cross But the gulf which surrounds us here is 
unfathomable; it has no reachable bottom, and no 
visible further shore Our only resource is the canti- 
lever. We must build our solid pier of fact on our own 
side of the gulf, start our truss-work from the top of 
that, and then we can build out over the abyss just as 
far as we build the balancing worth and faith inland in 
our own souls By all the laws of spirit, the unseen 
bridge-builder on the further shore will build toward 
us as far and as fast as we build toward him. The 
stronger and more out-reaching our hope, the sooner 
will the junction be formed between man's desires and 
his Maker's purposes The only Universalism I care 
anything about, is that which builds the bridge of 
eternal hope over the gulf of sin and darkness, and 
makes God accessible to the lost soul and straying feet 



348 UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

of the weakest and worst of men. All creeds are true 
in proportion to their ethical incitement, but all are 
false by defect and poverty of hope. The widest ex- 
pectations of man are too narrow for the beneficent 
purposes of God. Life is going to yield us more than 
we can ask or think; but it will yield in proportion as 
we learn to think and ask great things, Universalism 
aims to contribute to the world's faith the disposition, 
to ask and expect more life, the undying energy of an 
eternal hope which, not content with rescue, reprieve, 
security alone, seeks and expects nothing less than 
transformation into the perfect sonship of God. 
Hall of Washington, Art Institute, Sept. 75. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 

L— ADDRESSES AT THE WORLD'S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 

At the opening session of the Parliament of Religions, Hall 
of Columbus, Art Institute, Monday, Sept. 13, 1893, Harlow N. 
Higinbotham, President of the World's Columbian Exposition, 
introduced by Hon. Charles C. Bonney, made the following ad- 
dress. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Parliament of Religions 
of the World's Columbian Exposition: It affords me infinite plea- 
sure to welcome the distinguished gentlemen who compose this 
august body. It is a matter of satisfaction and pride, Mr. Presi- 
dent and gentlemen, that the relations existing between the peo- 
ples and the nations of the earth are of such a friendly nature as 
to make this gathering possible. I have long cherished the hope 
that nothing would intervene to prevent the full fruition of the la- 
bors of your earnest chairman. I apprehend that the fruitage 
of this Parliament will richly compensate him and the world, and 
more than justify his efforts and prove the wisdom of his work. 

It is a source of satisfaction that to the residents of a new city 
in a far country should be accorded this great privilege and high 
honor. The meeting of so many illustrious and learned men un- 
der such circumstances evidences the kindly spirit and feeling 
that exists throughout the world. To me this is the proudest 
work of our Exposition. There is no man, high or low, learned or 
unlearned, that will not watch with increasing interest the pro- 
ceedings of this Parliament. Whatever may be the differences in 
the religions you represent there is a sense in which we are all 
alike; there is a common plane on which we are all brothers. We 
owe our being to conditions that are exactly the same. Our jour- 
ney through this world is by the same route. We have in com- 
mon the same senses, hopes, ambitions, joys, and sorrows, and 
these, to my mind, argue strongly and almost conclusively, a com- 



350 APPENDIX. 

mon destiny. To me there is much satisfaction and pleasure in 
the fact that we are brought face to face with men that come to us 
bearing the ripest wisdom of the ages. They come in the friend- 
liest spirit, which I trust will be augmented by their intercourse 
with us and with each other. 

I am hoping, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that your Parlia- 
ment will prove to be a golden milestone on the highway of civil- 
ization; a golden stairway leading up to the tableland of a grander, 
highei, and more perfect condition, where peace will ever reign 
and the enginery of war be known no more forever. 



President Bonney introduced Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, D.D., 
chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Auxiliary, who spoke 
as follows: 

Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I am strangely moved 
as I stand here today and attempt to realize what it means that 
you are here from so many lands, representing so many phases of 
religious thought and life; and what it means that I am here in the 
midst of this unique assembly to speak a word for womanhood 
and to represent woman's part in this great Religious Parliament. 

The Parliament of Religions which assembles in this new world 
and in this new city of the West this morning, is the grandest and 
most significant convocation that has ever been assembled at the' 
call of religion upon the face of this earth. There are yet to be 
congresses for the consideration of a multitude of themes which 
appeal to a learned and limited company, but the great Parlia- 
ment of Religion appeals to all the people of the civilized world 
for in all lands all who wear the garb of humanity have inherited 
from the Infinite Father the same high spiritual nature. 

We have all of us, whether rich or poor, whether high or low, 
of whatever nationality and religious conviction, the same supreme 
necessities and the same great problem and infinity of love. This 
old world has rolled on through countless stages and phases of 
physical progress until it is the home of humanity, and it has, 
through a process of evolution or growth, reached an era of intel- 
lectual and spiritual development when there is "malice toward 
none and charity toward all," and when, without prejudice, with- 
out fear, and in perfect fidelity, we may clasp hands across the 
chasm of our differences and speed and cheer each other on in the 
way of all that is good and true. 



APPENDIX. 351 

The world's first Parliament of Religions could not have been 
called sooner and could not have earlier gathered the religionists 
of all these lands together. We had to wait for the hour to strike; 
until steam navigation, the railway and telegraph have brought 
men near to each other, have leveled the partition walls which had 
separated them and had made them acquainted with each other. 

We had to wait until scholars had broken the way through the 
wilderness of ignorance, of superstition and of falsehood, and com- 
pelled them to respect each other's interest and intelligence. 
[Applause.] One hundred years ago the world was not ready for 
this Parliament of Religions. Fifty years ago it could not have been 
called; and had it been called even one generation ago, it must 
have lacked the co-operation and the presence in its deliberation 
of one-half of the religious world. 

Woman could not have had a part in it in her own right and 
person even one generation of men in the past. She could not 
have participated in it for two reasons: one that her presence 
would not have been thought of or tolerated; another that she her- 
self was too weak to attempt, too unskilled to have availed her- 
self of, the privilege of speaking for herself had it been extended 
to her. Few, indeed, were those who a generation ago emphasized 
the great conception of the Fatherhood of God and the brother- 
hood of man, and fewer still were they who appreciated the vast 
religious power and meaning of this conception. Now there are 
found few who refuse them credence. 

I am not an old woman and yet my memory runs back easily 
to the time when in all the modern world there was not one. col- 
lege or university well equipped which opened its doors to women 
students; and there was a time when in all the modern world no 
woman had been ordained, or even acknowledged as a religious 
teacher or preacher. Now the doors of all are thrown wide open 
to her both in our own and in many other lands. Women are be- 
coming masters of languages in which the great literatures of the 
world are written. They are winning the highest honors that the 
great universities have to bestow. Hundreds have been ordained 
to speak and to teach this new gospel of freedom which has come 
to bless the world. We are still in the dawn, the very early dawn, 
of the new era. Its grand possibilities are all before us. We are 
assembled in this great Parliament to look for the first time in 
each other's faces and speak to each other our best and our truest 
words. I can only add my word of earnest and heartfelt greet- 



352 APPENDIX. 

ing to those who have gone before, and I welcome, you, my broth- 
ers, from every land and of many faiths, who have wrought so 
long, so grandly, and so well, in accordance with the wisdom high 
heaven has given you. And I welcome you, my sisters, who have 
come with beating hearts and high hopes and reverent purposes 
to this great feast to participate, not only in this Parliament, but 
in the great congresses which are associated with it, to behold not 
only that an Isabella of Spain had a prophetic vision — she beheld 
not only a new world, but also a new future— and an emanci- 
pated and intelligent womanhood [applause] and a strengthened 
religion to bless the world. I welcome you all to the fulfillment 
of her grand vision. 



APPENDIX. 353 



II.— COMMITTEES OF THE UNIVERSALIST CONGRESS. 

[Appointed by Hon. Charles C. Bonney, President of the World's 
Congress Auxiliary.] 

A. J. Canfield, D. D., Chairman. 

Rev. Geo. A. Sahlin, Recording Secretary. 

J. W. Hanson, D. D., Corresponding Secretary. 
J. S. Cantwell, D. D., H. N. Higinbotham, 

M. H. Harris, D D., C. L. Hutchinson, 

Rev. R. A. White, C. B. Sawyer, 

Rev. H. D. L. Webster, Samuel Kerr, 

Rev. A. H. Laing, F. A. Winkelman, 

Rev. L. J. Dinsmore, S. N. Brooks, 

Rev. A. N. Alcott, S. W. Straub, 

General Committee of the World's Congress Auxiliary on a 
Universalist Church Congress. 



Rev, Augusta J Chapin, Chairman. 

Mrs. M. H. Harris, Vice- Chairman. 

Mrs. C. B. Sawyer, Corresponding Secretary. 

Mrs. G. F. Sears, Secretary . 
Mrs. Sumner Ellis, Mrs. J. H. Swan, 

Mrs. M. R. M. Wallace, Mrs. W. S. Balch, 

Woman's Committee on a Universalist Church Congress. 

World's Congress Headquarters, 
Chicago, December, 1892. 



u 



354 



APPENDIX. 



III.— PARTIAL LIST OF ADVISORY COUNCIL. 



Orello Cone, D. D., President Buchtel 

College, Akron, O. 
A. B. Hervey, Ph. D., President St. 
Lawrence University, Canton, N. Y. 
Richard Eddy, D. D., Universalis* 

Register. 
Rev. George H. Emerson, D. D., 
Christian Leader, Boston, Mass. 

Rev. John C. Burruss, Universalist 
Herald, Notasulga, Ala. 

Hon.N.H.Hemiup, Minneapolis, Minn. 

William H. Slade, Columbus, O. 

Hon. D. Morrison, Minneapolis, Minn. 

John D. W. Joy, Boston, Mass. 

Hon. Henry B. Metcalf, President 
Universalist General Convention 
Pawtucket, R. I. 

A. A.Miner,D.D..LL.D., Boston, Mass. 

Ex.-Gov. Sidney Perham, Paris, Me. 

Gen. John C. Graves, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Mrs. M. Louise Thomas, Vice-Presi- 
dent-at-Large, Woman's Centenary 
Association, New York City. 

Hon. W. B. Washburn, U. S. Senate, 
Washington, D. C. 

C. A. Newcomb, Detroit, Mich. 

J. V. N. Standish, Ph. D., President 
Lombard University, Galesburg, 111. 

I.M. Atwood, D. D., President Theo- 
logical School, Canton, N. Y. 

E.H. Capen, D. D., President Tufts 
College, Mass. 

Rev. Caroline A. Soule, Glasgow, 
Scotland. 

Prof. Nehemiah White, Ph. D., Gales- 
burg, 111. 

Benjamin F. Spinney, Lynn, Mass. 

Charles H. Russell, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hon. Olney Arnold, Pawtucket, R.I. 

Miss Clara Barton, President Red 
Cross Association, Washington, D.C. 

Chief Justice G. S. Robinson, Iowa 
City, la. 

Hon. E. H. Conger, Minister Resident 
of the U.S., Rio Janeiro, Brazil. 

Hon. Newton Talbot, Boston, Mass. 



Chas. E. Carpenter, Providence.R.I. 

Mrs. G. B. Marsh, La Porte, Ind. 

Mrs. Cordelia A. Quinby, President 
Woman's Centenary Association, 
Augusta, Me. 

Mrs. R. H. Pullman, Baltimore, Md. 

Mrs. H.B. Manford, Sierra Madre.Cal. 

Charles H. Stephens, Cincinnati, O. 

C C. Van Riper, New York City. 

James C. Bond, Lynn, Mass. 

Eben Alexander, Boston, Mass. 

Edson M. Tiffany, Hop Bottom, Penn. 

Samuel B. Eldridge, Brooklyn, Penn. 

Hon. Henry Lord, Bangor, Me. 

Clarence I. Freeman, Waltham, Mass. 

Hon. Charles W. Garfield, Grand 
Rapids, Mich. 

Eugene C. Myrick, Providence, R. I. 

E.H. Cole, New York City. 

E. B. Manning, Meriden, Conn. 

Henry A. Manning, Stamford, Conn. 

G. L. Demarest, D. D., Secretary Uni- 
versalist General Convention, Man- 
chester. N. H. 
Hon.Hosea W.Parker.Claremont.N.H. 
Jos. G. Ray, Franklin, Mass. 
Jos. Kidder, Manchester, N. H. 
Eben F. Stevens, Dudley, Mass. 
A. H. Trego, Hoopeston, 111. 
Charles Foster, Taunton, Mass. 
Hon. Jos. Sheldon. New Haven, Conn. 
Rev. Elfreda S. Newport, Wauponsee, 

111. 
Rev. Louise M. Smiley, So. Newmar- 
ket, N. H. 
Mrs. Jennie Higgins, Eugene, Ore. 
R. N. Duncan, Mt. Tabor, Ore. 
Rev. R. N. John, Blanchester, O. 
Col. J.W. Knowlton, Bridgeport, Conn. 
Col. Geo. W. Hooker, Brattleboro, Vt. 
Prof. Percy I. Bugbee, State Normal 

School, Oneonta, N. Y, 
J. M. Pullman, D. D., Lynn, Mass. 
Dr. Benton Bement, Lockport, N. Y. 
Dr. J. H. Goodsell, Marseilles, 111. 
Chas. Wcodhouse, M. D., Rutland, Vt 



APPENDIX. 



355 



Chas. E. Pond, Norwood, Mass. 

Wm. J. Brooks, Eldora, la. 

F. D. Pierce, Cedar Falls, la. 

Mrs. S. M. Estes, Iowa Falls, la. 

F. A. Bomer, Des Moines, la. 

Mrs. Geo. McGrew, Jeffersonville, O. 

Mrs. Hattie Tyng Griswold, Colum- 
bus Wis. 

Rev.OlympiaBrownWillis, Racine, Wis. 

Stephenson Taylor, New York City. 

W. M. Whittemore, Norwich, Conn. 

Wm. Whipple, Ridgeway, N. Y. 

Mrs. Phebe Bourne, Contreras, O. 

Aquila McCord, McCordsville, Ind. 

A. Soper, Fairfield, Ind. 

John Galbreath, Walton, Ind. 

W. D. Wolfe, Brazil, Ind. 

Mrs. C. C. Kelly, Albany, Ore. 

Rev. Elizabeth M. Bruce, Maplewood. 
Mass. 

Rev. Lorenza Haynes.Waltham, Mass. 

Rev. Abbie E. Danforth, Peru, O. 

Rev. T. H. Tabor, Manford's Maga- 
zine, Chicago, 111. 

Rev.W. S. Crowe, D. D., Univsrsalist 
Monthly, Newark, N. J. 

Rev. I. J. Mead, Gosfiel Banner, Au- 
gusta, Me. 

Rev. Myra Kingsbury, Belfast, Me. 
Rev. Florence E. Kollock, Pasadena, 

Cal. 
Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Tonawanda, 

N. Y. 
E. F. Sibley, Spencer, Mass. 
W. H. Russell. Harriman, Tenn. 
C. H. Burks, Notasulga, Ala. 
Henry T. Sanford, Albany, N. Y. 
Wm. P. Cowee, Warren, Mass. 
Geo. P. Spates, Baltimore, Md. 
Andrew Merrill, Beach, Licking Co ,0. 
Charles West, Reynoldsburg, O. 
Oscar Gaines, Burlington, Ky. 
MaxHeavenrich, Saginaw, Mich. 
Alfred Woodman, Esq., Portland, Me. 
Mrs. Martha A.Adams, Vice-President 
Woman's Centenary Association, 
Melrose Highlands, Mass. 
A. S. White, Esq., Riverside, Cal. 
Rev. Henrietta G. Moore, Spring- 
field, 0. 



Mrs. H. B. Laflin, La Crosse, Wis. 
James D. Tillinghast, Universalis* 

Union, Tufts College, Mass. 
Hon. J. D. Piatt, Waterloo, la. 
Hon. A. G. Throop, Pasadena, Cal. 
Rev. Edgar Leavitt, Santa Cruz, Cal. 
Rev. E.L.Conger, D.D., Pasadena.Cal. 
Rev. Geo. H. Deere, D. D., Riverside, 

Cal. 
Charles Whittier, Roxbury, Mass. 
Rev. Annette J. Shaw, Eau Claire, Wis. 
Walter E. Parker, Lawrence, Mass. 
Daniel Goodrich, Haverhill, Mass. 
Chas. S. Davis, Junction City, Kan. 
E. W. Herrick, Minneapolis, Minn. 
Jas. L. Swingle, Mt. Gilead, O. 
Lester L. Ensworth, Hartford, Conn. 
John A. Zoller, Ft. Plain, N. Y. 
John A. Burkman, Mechanic Falls, Me. 
Geo. W. Oatley, Utica, N. Y. 
H. Judd Ward, Troy, N. Y. 
Chas. S. Fobes, Portland, Me. 
Gordon T.Hubbard.Middletown.Conn. 
Geo. Close, Cambridgeport, Mass. 
Zina E. Stone, Lowell, Mass. 
Charles Caverly, Boston, Mass. 
Harriet H. Van Cleve, Minneapolis. 

Minn. 
Rev. Caroline S. Angell, Norway, Me. 
Rev. Emma E.Bailey, Mansfield, Perm. 
Prof. Leslie A. Lee, Bowdoin College, 

Brunswick, Me. 
Prof. J. W.Grubb, Lombard University, 

Galesburg, 111. 
Rev. Fidelia Woolley Gillette, Stand- 
ing Stone, Penn. 
Mrs. Emily L. Sherwood, Washington 

D. C. 
Geo. C. Thomas, Germantown, Penn. 
Amos Paul, South Newmarket, N. H. 
C. C. Terry, Hudson, N. Y. 
Geo. W. Tilden, Barre, Vt. 
T. E. Beery, Upper Sandusky, O. 
Hon. Jas. W. Wakefield, Bath, Me. 
Mrs. G. H. Deere, Riverside, Cal. 
Rev. Ada C. Bowles, Pomona, Cal. 
Rev. Mary J. De Long, Oshkosh, Wis. 
Thos. M. Taylor, 153 Stevens Ave., Mt. 
Vernon, N. Y. 



356 



APPENDIX. 



IV.— NOTES TO DR. HANSON'S PAPER : " UNIVERSALISM IN THE 
FIRST FIVE CENTURIES." 

(i) Alvah Hovey, The State of the Impenitent Dead, pp. 131-132. 

(2) Teachings of the Twelve Apostles. A. D., 120-160; Apostles' Creed, 
A. D., 250; Tertullian's creed, A. D., 160; Iren^eus's creed, A. D., 180; Ni- 
cene Creed, A. D,. 325; see Chancellor Salmon, Diet. Christ. Biog.; Hagen- 
bach, Text-Book Christ. Doct., I., p. 52: Gieseler, Text-Book I., 80-152, 
Neander, I., 306; Murdoch's Mosheim, Inst. Eccl. Hist.; Bunsen, Hipp, and 
his Age, II., 95-96; Coquerel, First Hist. Trans, of Christianity, p. 208; 
Beecher, Hist. Doct. Fut. Ret., pp. 198-205; Lamson, Church First Three 
Cent., pp. 132-133; Allin, Univer. Asserted, p. 121; Socrates, Eccl. Hist. I., 
viii.,xviii. xxxvi; Hort, Two Dissertations, pp. 106, 138-147; Ballou, Anc. 
Hist. Universalism. 

(3) Contra Haer. 

(4) Philosophumena. 

(5) Robertson, Hist. Christ. Church, I., pp. 38, 39; Burton, Bampt. 
Lect.; Kaye's Tertullian; Mosheim's Inst.; Warburton, Divine Legation; 
Leland. Necess. of Divine Revelation, vol. Ill; Heeren, Researches African 
Nations, II., 189-199; Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, II.. pp. 356-400; Good, Book 
of Nature, p. 338, Harper's ed.; Polybius. B. vi; Livy, Hist. I., 19; Strabo, 
Geog. B. I.; and Virgil, Apollodorus, Hesiod, Herodotus, Plutarch, Dio- 
dorus Siculus, etc. Consult also Milman's Gibbon, ch. xxi., note; Universal- 
ist Expositor, 1833, p. 423; Murdoch's Mosheim, vol. I. p. 39; Enfield's Hist. 
Philos., B.iv. ch. i.; Coquerel's First Hist. Trans, of Christianity, p. 174; Mil- 
man's Hist. Christianity, B. II., ch. i.; Neander, I., pp. 3, 4; Bohn's ed., 1890; 
Mosheim, I., cent, i.; Conybeare's Paul, vol. I., chs. xiv, xv.; Enfield's Hist. 
Philos., Prelim. Obs.; Priestley, Corruptions of Christianity; Edinb. Review, 
vol. xxiii,, p. 238; Vaughan's Causes of the Corruption of Christianity, p. 319; 
Tytler's Univ. Hist. B. V., ch. iv.; Thayer's Hist. Doct. End. Punishment, 
pp. 192, 193; Pitrat's Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines, p. 173; Gieseler, 
Ecc. Hist. vol. I. 

(6) Antiq, Jews, xviii, i, § 3; Wars, ii. viii., §§ n-14; Hanson's 
Aion-Aionios. pp. 121-125. 

(7) Huidekoper's Christ's Mission to the Underworld; Plumptre's 
Spirits in Prison; Dietelmaier's Descensu Christi ad Inferos; Universalism 
Asserted, p. 98; Clement of Alexandria, Strom; II., V.; Col. 1688, Shepherd 
of Hermas, iii., ix. Tertullian, De Cor. 3; De Monog. x.; Euseb. Dem. Evan, 
iv., 12 (Migne, vol. xxii.;) Athanasius, De passione et cruce Domine, 
(Migne, vol. xxviii.); Origen on I. Kings, xxviii: 32; Didymus. De Spirit. 
Sanct. (Migne, xxxix); Jerome on Jon., ii: 6; Farrar's Ear-ly Days of Chris- 
tianity, ch. vii., pp. 93, 94; Origen, Ag. Cels., II. 

(8) Uhlhorn, I. iii.; Foxe's Book of Martyrs I. p., 74;Vaughan's Causes 
of the Corruption of Christianity, p., 319; Clem. Alex., Strom. V. xiv: VI. vi. 
VII. xvi.; VI. xiv., Acta St. Perpetua; Tertullian, De Monog. 10, De Cor. 3, De 
Exhort. Cast. 2; Plumptre, Spirits in Prison, (London, 1884) p. 25; Nitzsch 
Christ. Lehre, §iii; Dorner, Christ. Doct. vol. iv., Eschatology. 

(9) Greg., Dial, iv, 20, 



APPENDIX. 357 

(10) Hagenbach, vol. I; Schroch; Arch. Usher; Arch. Wake, quoted 
by Canon Farrar in Mercy and Judgment, pp. 62-64; Plumptre, Spirits in 
Prison, p., 141; Lee's Christian Doc. of Prayer; Augustine, Conf., x. 13. 

(11) De Rossi's Subterranean Rome, Northcote's Roman Catacombs; 
Withrow's Catacombs; Scott's Catacombs; Maitland's Church in the Cata- 
combs. 

(12) Ruskin's Bible of Amiens; Farrar, Lives of the Fathers, Int. 12; 
Allen's Cont. Christian Thought, pp., 25-27; Lamson's Church of the First 
Three Centuries, Prelim. Chap.; Stanley's Hist. East. Ch., pp., xxxvii-xxxviii; 
Coqubrel, First Hist. Trans. Christianity, p. 180; Martineau's Hours of 
Thought, p. 155, 

(13) B. V. vv 211-250, 340; B. II., p. 212, edition Opsopoei, Paris, 1667; vv 
195-340. 

(14) Wordsworth's St. Hippolytus and the Church of Rome, p. 144. 

(15) Matt. xr.28; Phil, iv: 4; 1 Pet. i: 8; Matt, xi: 19; Ibid, vi: 28-34. 
(ib) Matthew Arnold. 

(17) Ha weis, Conquering Cross, Forewords; Cave, LivesofFathers.il. 
Preface; De Pressense, Early Years II, ch. iii., p. 233; Milman, Latin Chris- 
tianity; Schaff, Hist. Christ. Ch. I., pp. 440, 346-349; Allen, Cont. Christian 
Thought. Int. pp. 13,39; SHEDD'sHist. Christ. Doc. II. pp. 42-91. 

(18) Bigg's Christ. Platonists of Alex., Lee. II.; Robertson, Hist. 
Christ. Ch., I., p. 90. Bingham, III., x, 5; Neander, Hist. Ch. Ch, ii., p. 227 
(Bohn's ed.); Mosheim, Comm. I., p. 263; Butler's Lives of the Saints, VII., 
PP. 55-59- 

(19) Essays: Boston ed., Alexandria and Her Schools; p. 377. See also Far- 
rar's Lives of the Fathers, I., pp. 262-263. 

(20) Lives of the Fathers, I, p, 262. 

(21) Stromata, I.; Canon Brooke Foss WestcOtt, Diet. Christ. Biog. 
art. Clem, of Alex. 

(22) De Trin. proem. B. III.; Cont. Petiliani B. II. 

(23) Hipp, and His Age, I., pp. 237-245. 

(24) On I. John,, ii., 2. Comments on "Sed etiam pro toto mundo:" 
"Proinde uni versos quidem salvat, sed alios per supplicia convertens, alios 
autem spontanea, assequentes voluntate, et cum honoris dignitate (Phil, ii., 10) 
ut omne genufiectatur ei, caelestium, terrestrium et infernorum; hoc est angeli, 
homines, et animae quae ante adventum ejus de hac vita migravere temporali." 

(25) Strom. VII. xvi. 

(26) paideiai. 

(27) kolaseis. 
(28) timoria. 

(29) timoreitai. 

(30.) Strom. VI. vi; Paed. I., viii. 

(31) Strom. VI. quoted by Neander Hist. Christ. Dogmas. I., p. 254. 
Also ibid VII. vi. 

(32) Strom. VII. ii. 

(33) Cont. Christian Thought, pp. 51-57, 68. 

(34) Christian Platonists of Alex., pp. 112,89,75,271. 

(35) Martyrs and Apologists, pp. 235-236. 

(36) Lect. Ecc. Hist. First and Second Cent., pp. 230-239. 

(37) Christ. Hist. First Three Cent. II., p. 3. 

(38) De Usu Patrum, II., 4. 



358 APPENDIX. 

(39) Eternal Hope, Note, p. 158; Lives of the Fathers, I., 288-289; EuSE- 
bius Eccl. Hist, ch. vi. 

(40) Reference may be made to Strom. VII., xi.; on I John, ii., 2; Strom." 
VII.. xvi; Paed. I. viii.; Strom. VI., vi.; IV.xxiv.; I.; i.; Paed. i.. viii. Strom 
IV., v, 

(41) Cont. Christ. Thought, Int. p. 19. 

(42) EusebiusEcc. Hist, vi.; Butler's Lives of Saints, IV., pp. 224-231- 

(43) Gieseler; Bunsen, Christ and Mankind, I., p, 286; Eusebius Eccl. 
Hist., VI.; chs. ii., iii., viii. 

(44) Hist. Comm. Christ, before Const., II., p. 149. 

(45) Hist, Apost. Ch. p. 39, 699. 

(46) Christ. Plat, of Alex., pp. 279,308. 

(47) Hipp, and His Age, pp. 285-286. 

(48) Mar, and Apol., pp. 326-327, 332-338. 

(49) Holy East. Ch.,L, p. 38. 

(50) Essays, p. 236. 

(51) Early Days, xiv., p. 180; Mercy and Judg., p. 298; Lives of Fathers, 
pp. 316-318. 

(52) True Discourse. 

(53) katharsin, 

(54) aionios. 

(55) Hagenbach, Introduction. 

(56* De Prin. I., vi; see also Ibid. II., x. 4; Ag. Cels. IV., xiii: 1. 

(57) Ag. Cels. VIII., lxxii; (Crombie's Translation). See also, de Prin, 
Preface, I., ii.; iv. 1-8; I.. vi:3; II., iii: 5; Selecta in Exodum. 

(58) Ag. Cels. VI. xxv. 

(59) Ibid. V., xvi. 

(60) Ibid. IV. xiii. V. xv., (pur katharsion.) VIII, lxxi 

(61) Christ. Platonists of Alex., p. 233. 

(62) Origen continually appeals to Scripture as the source of his theol- 
ogy. Among the texts he quotes to prove Universal Salvation are Luke iii: 16: 
I., Cor. iii: 15; Isa., xiv: 4; xii: 1; xxiv: 22;xlvi: 14-15; Micah. vii:9; Ezek. xvi: 53-55; 
Jer. xxv: 1 5-16; Matt, xviii: 30; Johnx: 16; Rom. xi: 25, 26, 32; I., Pet. iii: 18-21; I 
Cor .xv: 26, etc.; DePrin, I., vi: 3. 

(63) Ag. Cels. VI. xxv. IV. xiii; DePrin. III. v. vii. Ibid. I. vi. lb. II. viii. 
4. I.vi. 3; ii: 3; III., vi: 3; Ag. Cels. VIII,, xxxix, xl. 

(64) Christian Platonists of Alexandria. 

(65) Hist. Doct. p. 321, Foreign Theol. Lib. Edinburgh, 1883. 

(66) Comm. II., pp. 194-195. 

(67) Hist. Christ. Ch. I., p. 114. 

(68) Vol. II., p. 193. 

(69) Lives of Fathers, I., pp. 320, 321. 

(70) Hist. Christ. Dogmas, I., pp.254, 255. 

(71) Hist. Christ. Ch. III., pp. 699, 7oo. 

(72) Hipp, and his Age, I., pp. 282, 283. 

(73) Christ. Plat, of Alex. 

(74) Holy Eastern Church, I., p. 37. 

(75) Ballou, Anc. Hi st. Univ. pp. 280, 281; Murdoch's Mosheim, I., pp. 
410, 411, note; Gieseler, Hist. VI., p. 478. Also, Hagenbach and Neander. 

(76) Cave's Historia Literaria; Labbeus, Sacrosancta Conc.Vol.V., p.635; 
Murdoch's Mosheim I., p. 410; Evagrius, Eccl. Hist. B., iv: c. 38; Nicephorus, 
Eccl. Hist.xvii: 27; Mansi, ix: 395; Landon's Manual of Councils, p. 177- 



APPENDIX. 359 

(77) Plumptre's Spirits in Prison, p. 141; Landon's Manual of Councils, 
p. 177; Neander, IV., p. 492; Gieseler, II., io2; Beecher, Hist. Doct. Fut. 
Ret. p. 246; Diet. Christ. Biog., art. Eschatology. 

(78) Gieseler. 

(79) Beecher, Hist. Doct. Fut. Ret. pp. 178, 189, 190, 219. 

(80) Neander, Hist. Christ. Ch. Vol. II., p. 676; Farrar's Mercy and 
Judgment, p. 226. 

(81) Hist, de la theol. Apost. 

(82) Text-book. 

(83) Inst. Theol. Christ. II: 199:— Quanto quis altius in eruditione in 
antiquitate Christiana eminuit, tanto magis spem finiendorum olim, cruciatum 
aluit atque defendit. 

(84) OLSHAUSENin his Commentaries (I. p. 405, 3d German edition,) de- 
clares that this faith has always had in the church, "a deep root in noble minds:" 
-Das gef uehl aber, welches sich in den Vertheidigern einer afiokatastasis ton Can- 
ton (derenes zu aller Zeit viele gab und in unserer Zeit mehr als in irgend einer 
fruehern) gegen die Lehre von der Endlosigkeit der Strafen der Gottlosen 
ausspricht mag oft in einem erschlaften sittlich in Bewusstseyn begrundet seyn, 
doch hat es ohne Zweifel auch eine tiefe Wurzel in edeln Gemuethern;— es ist der 
ausdruckder Sehnsucht nach vollendeter Harmonie in der Schopfung." 

(85) Diet. Christ. Biog. L, pp. 271-272; Bunsen's Hip. and his Age. I., pp. 
107, 142; Mosheim, Com. I., pp. 257, 437; Iren^eus Ag. Her. i. xxv, 84; Baur, 
Christ. Gnosis, Hist. First Christ. Cent. pp. 236, 237; Ag. Her. I., xxv., Sec. 4. 

(86) Matt. v. 46. 

(87) Luke xii. 47, 48. 

(88) non ad tempus, sed aeterno sunt. 

(89) On Eph. 1, 10.; see also Diet. Christ. Biog. II., p. 194; IV., p. 946; 
Theodore's De Creatura; Beecher, Hist. Doct. Fut. Ret., p. 225. 

(90) Omnia** recapitulavit in Christo quasi quandam compendiosam 
renovationem et adintegrationem totius faciens creaturae per eum * * hoc autem 
in futuro sseculo erit, quando nomines cuncti necnon et rationabiles virtutes ad 
ilium inspiciant, ut fas exigit, et concordiam inter se pacemque firmam 
obtineant." 

(91) Adv. Manich. B. I. ch. 32 (Migne, Vol. xviii., p. 1118.) 

(92) aionios. 

(93) Diet. Christ Biog. III. p. 780. 

(94) Tes Macarias Macrines, and Peri Psuches kai Anastaseos, Migne, xlvi. 
PP- 959-1000, 

(95) panta en pasin. 

(96) Morell's ed. p. 229, Paris 1688. 

(97) Morell's ed. p. 212; Also Diet. Christ. Biog. II. pp. 731, 732; De Orig, 
Ante-Nic. Library, vol. xx; Invec. in Hier. Lib. 1.; Univ. Asserted, p. in. 

(98) p. 154, Oehler's ed., p. 684, vol. n. De An. et Res. 

(99) See Beecher, Farrar, and others who allude to this too little known 
saint whose biography ought to be a Christian classic. 

(100) Tract, Filius subjicietur, etc. 

(101) Com. on I. Cor.xv: 28, and Peri tou Biou tes Macarias Macrines. 

(102) pasa he anthropine phusis. 

(103) Migne, xlvi. p. 184. 

(104) katharseos kolasis 



360 APPENDIX. 

(105) See Univ. Asserted, p. 125; Diet. Christ. Biog. II. p. 767; Plumptre's 
Spirits in Prison, pp. 13S, 139; Migne, xlv. p. 187; Neander, Hist. Christ. Dog- 
mas, II. p. 413, 414. See also Greg. Nys. Orat. Catachet. cc. 26, 35; Migne. vol. 
xliv.p. 69; Ibid. xlv. pp 9-106. 

(106) Vol. II. Hist. Christ. Ch. p. 93. 

(107) Kingsley's Alexandria and her Schools pp. 384, 385. See also, 
Grimm's Life of Michael Angelo, II. 80, 220-222. 

(108) Univ. Asserted, p. 148. 

(109) Hist. Doct. Fut. Ret. pp. 308 ^09. 
(no) Ibid. pp. 302, 303. 

(in) Professor Plumptre, Diet. Christ. Biog. art. Eschatology; Dr. Ed- 
ward Beecher, Hist. Doct. Fut. Ret. p. 246. Allin. Univ. Asserted. 

(112) Max Muller stated in the course of a paper read at the World's 
Parliament of Religions in September, 1893: "If we want to be true and honest 
Christians we must go back to those earliest ante-Nicene authorities, the true 

FATHERS OF THE CHURCH." 



APPENDIX. 



361 



V.— UNIVERSALIST MINISTERS AT THE CONGRESS. 



John C. Adams, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
A.N. Alcott, Elgin, 111. 
Lindley M. Andrews, Santa Paula, Cal. 
Isaac M. Atwood, Canton, N. Y. 
Emma E. Bailey, Mansfield, Pa. 
Mary C. Billings, Hico, Tex. 
Henry Blanchard, Portland, Me. 
Leonard W. Brigham, Macomb, 111. 
Andrew J. Canfield, Chicago, 111. 
Harry L. Canfield, Cincinnati, O. 
John S. Cantwell, Chicago, 111. 
James F. Carney, Muncie, Ind. 
Augusta J. Chapin, Chicago, 111. 
John S. Cook, Leroy, 111. 
Stephen Crane, Sycamore, 111. 
Amos Crum, Webster City, la. 
Mrs. S. L. Crum, Webster City, la. 
Mary J. De Long, Oshkosh, Wis. 
Lucien J. Dinsmore, Chicago, 111. 
Charles H. Eaton, New York City. 
M. L. Estey, Dixon, 111. 
E. Fitzgerald, East Gloucester, Mass. 
Andrew Getty, Sharpsburg, Pa. 
Massena Goodrich, Pawtucket, R. I. 
James Gorton, Summerdale, 111. 
Frank O. Hall, Lowell, Mass. 
John W. Hanson, Chicago, 111. 
Moses H. Harris, Chicago, 111. 



John Hughes, Table Grove, 111. 
Elmer D. Jacobs, Bryan, O. 
Rodney F.Johonnot, Oak Park, 111. 
JohnE. Keyes, Marshalltown, la. 
Alfred H Laing, Joliet, 111. 
John C. Lee, Galesburg, 111. 
Alonzo A. Miner, Boston, Mass. 
Charles E. Nash, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Le Grand Powers, St. Paul, Minn. 
James M. Pullman, Lynn, Mass. 
Royal H. Pullman, Baltimore, Md. 
Everett L Rexford, Boston, Mass . 
G. A. Sahlin, Benton Harbor, Mich. 
S. W. Sample, Minneapolis, Minn. 
JohnF. Schindler, Racine, Wis. 
Holmes Slade, McHenry, 111. 
Jacob Straub, Hoopeston, 111. 
Edwin C. Sweetser, Philadelphia, Pa . 
Quillen H. Shinn, Galesburg, 111. 
W. L. Swan, Clarinda, la. 
Timothy H. Tabor, Chicago, 111. 
Aaron A. Thayer, La Grange, 111. 
Olympia B. Willis, Racine, Wis. 
George S. Weaver, Canton, N. Y. 
Nehemiah White, Galesburg, 111. 
Rufus A. White, Englewood, 111. 
F. M. Yates, Marseilles, 111. 



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